(Reuters) - A group of four Russian and Belarusian nationals, detained in the central African state of Chad for more than a month, flew back to Moscow on Saturday, Russian media reported.
State news agency RIA said the group included Maxim Shugalei, identified as a sociologist but described by Western journalists and institutions, including the European Union, as an official linked to the late head of Russia's Wagner Group, a private army.
"Three Russians and a citizen of Belarus, who were detained and held in Chad, have been freed and arrived in Moscow this evening," RIA quoted "colleagues" of Shugalei as saying.
The Moscow daily Kommersant said the return of the four men had been confirmed by the Fund to Protect National Values, a group promoting Russian cultural interests abroad.
Russian media reported that Shugalei and a second man identified as Samir Seifan were detained at the airport in the Chad capital Ndjamena in September, with no reason given.
RIA said the Chadian ambassador to Moscow, Adam Bechir, subsequently announced that President Mahamat Idriss Deby had ordered that the four men be released and handed over to Russian authorities.
Kommersant said it had learned that their detention was linked to an article in the French-based magazine Jeune Afrique identifying Shugalei as a close associate of Wagner's founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin. RIA said Russia's Foreign Ministry had taken "all the necessary measures" to secure their release.
The Wagner group played a major role in Russia's war in Ukraine until its forces staged a rebellion in June 2023, briefly threatening to march on Moscow from southern Russia. Prigozhin was killed a month later in a plane crash.
Russia has sought to win friends throughout Africa and made particularly deep inroads in Burkina Faso, Mali and the Central African Republic through private military and business networks. Since Prigozhin's death, Moscow has sought to centralize operations under Africa Corps.
Shugalei is subject to EU sanctions on grounds of overseeing disinformation campaigns to promote Wagner in Africa. Kommersant said he and Seifan had been detained in Libya in 2019 on allegations of trying to manipulate elections.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and by Jessica Donati in Dakar; Editing by Richard Chang)
