Putin – KCS Group Europe Ltd

Prigozhin’s death – the cracks are beginning to show

Articles / Africa, Due Diligence, mercenary, Putin, Russia, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin / 09/2023 09/2023

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death in August 2023 has sent shockwaves through the geopolitical community. The alleged founder of the infamous Wagner Group, Prigozhin, was also a Russian oligarch and close aide to President Vladimir Putin. The killing of Wagner’s leadership will have significant negative security consequences for the individuals, continents and countries caught up in the …

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Damned if you do, damned if you don’t – Putin and the BRICS summit

Articles / Brazil, BRICS, China, Due Diligence, India, Putin, Russia:Ukraine conflict, South Africa / 08/2023 08/2023

Putin’s decision to avoid the BRICS summit is not all it seems. Between 22 and 24 August, South Africa will have the honour of hosting the 2023 annual BRICS summit. The big names – Brazil, India, China and the hosts, South Africa – will be present in full force. The Russian President will not. BRICS …

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Evgeny Prigozhin

Articles / Africa, Corruption, Due Diligence, mercenary, Putin, Russia:Ukraine conflict, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin / 06/2023 06/2023

Evgeny Prigozhin is an ex-con who has served time in a Russian prison. He is also a thug and a bully who has plied his trade (leading the mercenary group, Wagner) across Africa for some years. Wagner, led by Prigozhin, has made millions by killing and destroying anything that stands in its way, for whatever …

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Georgia – the second front of the U.S./Russia economic proxy war?

Articles / Corruption, counter-terrorism, DueDiligence, Georgia, money-laundering, Putin, Russia, TBC Bank, USA / 04/2023 06/2023

Revelations of corruption, money laundering and embezzlement from within the banking industry in Georgia does not, in and of itself, cause much surprise: that investigations by the Georgian Prosecutor's Office (coming to a head in 2019 ) resulting in charges of money laundering against several senior directors - Mamuka Khazaradze, the founder, his deputy Badri …

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Georgia: The song remains the same

Articles / Conflict, Cybercrime, Due Diligence, Georgia, money-laundering, NATO, Putin / 04/2023 04/2023

As the fifteen-year anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s first attempt at recreating the Soviet Union approaches, the 2008 invasion of Georgia and the brief conflict that resulted needs to be reassessed: both as a military offensive on its own terms, and as part of a Kremlin grand strategy that has only intensified in the years since. …

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Divide and conquer: The Kremlin’s gambit

Articles / Corruption, Due Diligence, Kremlin, Oligarchs, Putin, Russia, Sanctions, Sergei Shoigu, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Yuri Kovalchuk / 03/2023 03/2023

Petrov’s Defence, known popularly as the Russian Game, is a chess opening based around symmetry: the second player matching the moves of the first through pawn, knight and so on, in a game that has a reputation for leading to protracted, difficult draws unless a player can seize upon a momentary advantage that may come …

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Modi, Putin and the future of India: Does truth still triumph?

Articles / China, Corruption, Democracy, Due Diligence, India, President Modi, Putin, Russia / 02/2023 02/2023

If great minds think alike, then so too must great dictators. As the world emerged from pandemic lockdowns in December 2021, Russia’s President Putin made Narenda Modi of India the subject of only his second international visit in almost two years, and the first in a subsequent line of appearances in autocracies across Central Asia, …

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Creating a Dictator

Articles / Corruption, Democracy, Due Diligence, Kremlin, Putin, Russia, Russian Business / 01/2023 01/2023

The quagmire of a lengthy, painful, and ultimately unsuccessful campaign in Afghanistan in the 1980s is credited with hastening the demise of the Soviet Union. History could well be repeating, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stretches into an eleventh month and domestic discontent with Putin’s war continues to rise. Could this be the trigger that …

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Russia’s second front

Articles / Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Due Diligence, Mexico, oil and gas, Putin, Russia, Venezuela / 01/2023 01/2023

Vladimir Putin’s efforts to change the world’s balance of power requires not just a strong military, but serious influence over the world’s oil & gas markets, and to be really effective, he needs more than just Saudi Arabia and Iran on side – he needs control directly or indirectly of South America’s oil production as …

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Yandex – The Moral Maze

Articles / Due Diligence, Putin, Russian Business, Technology, Yandex / 01/2023 01/2023

Yandex, ‘The Russian Google’, was hit by sanctions after the EU decided it had played an active role in spreading propaganda at the start of Putin’s war in Ukraine. Yandex’s founder, Arkady Volozh, managed to avoid personal sanctions by leaving the board and selling his shares. For Russians, Yandex was more than just another tech-giant. …

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