Gold smuggling in Russia contributes to Putin’s war

• Sudan is Africa’s third-largest producer of gold.
• At least 16 confirmed Russian gold smuggling flights out of Sudan in last year and a half.
• Russia has provided significant political and military support to Sudan’s military, which is violently suppressing the country’s pro-democracy movement.

A Russian cargo plane waited on a Khartoum runway, a sliver of tarmac surrounded by red-orange sand, just days after Moscow unleashed its brutal attack on Ukraine.

According to the aircraft’s manifest, it was laden with cookies. Cookies are rarely, if ever, exported from Sudan.

A violent dispute erupted amongst officials in Khartoum International Airport’s back office. They were concerned that inspecting the plane would embarrass the country’s increasingly pro-Russian military leadership.

Several prior attempts to intercept questionable Russian carriers had been unsuccessful. However, the officials ultimately chose to board the plane.

Colorful boxes of cookies spread out before them inside the hold. Just beneath were wooden containers containing Sudan’s most valuable resource. Gold. Approximately one tonne of it.

This February episode, according to several official Sudanese sources, is one of at least 16 confirmed Russian gold smuggling flights out of Sudan, Africa’s third-largest producer of the precious metal, in the last year and a half.

Multiple interviews with high-level Sudanese and US officials, as well as troves of documents reviewed by the Media agency, paint a picture of a sophisticated Russian scheme to plunder Sudan’s riches in order to fortify Russia against increasingly harsh Western sanctions and to bolster Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.

The evidence also implies that Russia conspired with Sudan’s ailing military leadership, allowing billions of dollars in gold to skip the Sudanese state and deprive the impoverished country of hundreds of millions of dollars in state revenue.

In exchange, Russia has provided significant political and military support to Sudan’s increasingly unpopular military administration, which is violently suppressing the country’s pro-democracy movement.

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