After months of diplomatic choreography and billions of rubles invested in an Africa summit by Russian president Vladimir Putin, mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin stole the limelight in jeans and a polo shirt outside the event.
And his spin of the Niger putsch tried to push Putin's proclamations and splashy gifts still further down the newspaper columns.
The Kremlin and Russian propaganda had been talking up Russia's redoubled focus on Africa and the pivotal importance of the St ...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.