The Wagner Group—a Russian private military company (PMC) linked to the Kremlin, Ministry of Defense (particularly the Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU), and Federal Security Service (FSB)—has arrived in Mali with the support of the Russian armed forces. This deployment, which reportedly began in December 2021, has been condemned by Mali’s international partners including the United States and numerous Europeancountries. With instability in the Sahel on the rise, and with countries like France scalingback their military efforts against Salafi-jihadist groups in the region, Wagner’s emergence comes at a particularly fraught moment for Mali and is representative of Russia’s strategy to spread influence in the region through irregular, deniable means. As Russia’s most infamous PMC works to entrench itself in a state that has been at the center of counterterrorism efforts in West Africa, the international community should rethink its strategy to stymie Russian irregular efforts in Africa.
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