According to the indictment, dated 26 November and accessed by Lusa on Wednesday, Igor Rotchin Mihailovich, 38 years old, and Lev Matveevich Lakshtanov, 64 years old, and Angolans Amor Carlos Tomé, a 38-year-old journalist, and Oliveira Francisco, a 32-year-old political leader of UNITA, Angola’s largest opposition party, who were arrested on 7 August this year, committed the crimes of espionage, terrorist organisation and financing of terrorism, public incitement to crime, terrorism, active corruption of officials and illegal introduction of foreign currency into the country.
In the indictment, the public prosecutor’s office indicates that, after the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in August 2023, the Wagner Group’s African assets were taken over by Africa Org, a paramilitary structure that maintains a presence on the continent through Africa Politology and in the Portuguese-speaking country through Angola Politology, with a project called “Political Science of Angola,” led by the defendant Igor Mihailovich, head of the organisation in the country.
Official suspects Lev Lakshtanov, Amor Carlos Tomé and Oliveira Francisco are salaried members of the organisation, whose activities include secret networks of political technologists, professionalised propaganda outlets, commercial lobbying fronts, “composed of former Prigozhin agents and intelligence officers, who carry out aggressive information and cyber warfare campaigns, including large-scale cloning of websites and cyber espionage,” according to the public prosecutor’s office.
According to the indictment, in order to implement its projects “and to offer a legal face,” the organisation claimed that it intended to create the Angola-Russia House of Culture, but its political objectives were “concrete acts of destabilisation of the country, so that they could provoke political change, bringing the UNITA party to power, or alternatively, if it was not possible to bring UNITA to power, forcing change to occur within the leadership of the MPLA [ruling] party, influencing the appointment of a pro-Russia leader”.
To carry out his tasks, the defendant Oliveira Francisco took on the political side, with responsibility for creating conditions to bring the Russian official suspects closer to the UNITA leadership, “in order to lead them to a partnership and exchange of services, through the signing of a memorandum,” it continues.
The contacts made by Oliveira Francisco, national secretary for urban mobilisation of the United Revolutionary Youth of Angola (JURA), UNITA’s youth organisation, began with Manuel Ekuikui ‘Nelito Ekuikui’, leader of JURA, and then moved on to General Armindo Paulo Lukamba ‘Gato’, the organisation’s spokesperson, as well as UNITA leader Adalberto Costa Júnior, according to the indictment.
Palácio presidencial de Angola na Cidade Alta, Luanda, 20 de março de 2019. AMPE ROGÉRIO/LUSA
At one of the meetings, a partnership for the 2027 elections was allegedly discussed, and “proposals already discussed with party leader Adalberto Costa Júnior” were then presented for financial assistance, security, training of party staff abroad and assistance in obtaining information, the public prosecutor’s office writes.
“The official suspect Amor Carlos Tomé was responsible for identifying leaders and militants of UNITA or the MPLA [ruling party] who are critical of the current leadership of their respective parties, identifying economic objectives that could serve the interests of the defendants, and identifying and recruiting journalists,” it adds.
According to the indictment, the list also included analysts to produce texts to be disseminated en masse in physical and digital newspapers, private radio stations, Facebook pages, WhatsApp groups, “aimed at creating a general feeling of insecurity and revulsion towards the current government, which would ultimately lead to social unrest and the desired political change”.
It was the official suspect Amor Carlos Tomé who allegedly provided contacts for MPLA figures, promoting meetings between the Russian defendants and General Higino Carneiro, a pre-candidate for the leadership of the MPLA, engineer António Venâncio, who also aspires to the party leadership, as well as General Julião Mateus Paulo ‘Dino Matrosse’, former leader of the party, it says.
On 2nd June 2025, the public prosecutor’s office reports in the indictment, “the defendants began to plan the creation and staging of a large-scale demonstration, initially against hunger”, and on 16th July of the same year, defendants Amor Carlos Tomé and Lev Lakshtanov “were already aware of everything that was going to happen in Luanda”, in reference to the taxi drivers’ strike that took place in Luanda between 28th and 30th July, resulting in riots.
The public prosecutor’s office claims to have reached this conclusion because on 16 July, the official suspect Amor Carlos Tomé sent the official suspect Lev Lakshtanov a text entitled “Taxi drivers’ strike in Luanda”, which was later adopted by the vice-president of the National Association of Taxi Drivers of Angola (ANA), Rodrigo Catimba, also detained, in his communication with the press. The defendants were remanded in custody.
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