The Wall Street Journal - 24.02.2020

A10| Monday, February 24, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

FROM PAGE ONE

according to Russia’s foreign

ministry and European secu-

rity officials.

In October, 43 African

heads of state flew to the Rus-

sian resort Sochi for the first

Russia-Africa summit. The

leaders mingled with Russian

state companies involved in

defense and oil and gas, buy-

ing $12.5 billion worth of Rus-

sian agricultural goods and

equipment and services for re-

fineries and railroads.

Moscow’s tactics emerged

with its interventions in east-

ern Ukraine in 2014, where the

Kremlin worked with armed

groups fielded by politically

connected Russian business-

men. Companies owned by

former restaurateur Yevgeny

Prigozhin won multimillion-

dollar catering and construc-

tion contracts for the Russian

armed forces. Mr. Prigozhin

then created Wagner Group, a

private military company, ac-

cording to European security

officials.

Mr. Prigozhin also built a

political consulting firm, the

Internet Research Group, that

the Justice Department says

was behind Russian efforts to

sow discord among Americans

in the 2016 election.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry

Peskov said the Wagner Group

“has nothing to do with Rus-

sian state, with the Russian

government, with the Russian

defense ministry, with Russian

special services or with the

Kremlin.”

Ukraine and Syria

As fighting in Ukraine

ebbed in 2015, Wagner turned

to Syria, where it fought on

behalf of President Bashar al-

Assad, and Mr. Prigozhin’s

companies won oil and gas

concessions.

Mr. Prigozhin’s company

and his lawyers didn’t respond

to requests for comment.

The Kremlin’s first major

foray into Africa since Soviet

days came two years ago in

the Central African Republic, a

mineral-rich former French

colony. Africa was drawing

foreign governments and com-

panies hungry for resources. It

also had become a source of

terrorism and migration prob-

lems.

In late 2017, Moscow per-

suaded the United Nations to

allow Russia to undertake a

mission to train the Central

African Republic’s army, which

was fighting rebels, and sup-

port its weakened president,

Faustin-Archange Touadera.

The first deployment—sev-

eral dozen Russian mercenar-

Gen. Haftar, a Soviet-

trained former commander in

Gadhafi’s military, rebelled in

2014 against Libya’s new ruler,

uniting disparate militias to

take control of a swath of

eastern Libya. In 2018 he

seized most of the country’s

main oil-exporting ports. Last

year, he attacked Tripoli.

The ports let Gen. Haftar

control oil flows to Europe

and offer a staging point for

attacks on government troops.

Rebels are expanding control

of the region, known as the

“oil crescent,” where 85% of

Libya’s reserves lie. American

companies long dominated the

region until civil war

prompted them to leave.

In the middle of last year,

Gen. Haftar’s troops brought

Russian military contractors

into two ports to train com-

mandos and launch strikes, ac-

cording to Libyan oil and secu-

rity officials. Mr. Bashagha,

the interior minister, said the

Russians were Wagner em-

ployees.

“Whoever controls the area

controls the oil fields,” said

Mr. Bashagha, who is part of

the internationally recognized

government.

Visiting Russians

In December, the rebel ad-

ministration of Gen. Haftar al-

lowed a group of Russian and

Belarusian businessmen to

visit his eastern stronghold of

Benghazi, according to an ar-

rivals list at the city’s airport.

The visitors included a Rus-

sian fuel-trading executive and

managers at a Russian con-

tractor specializing in mining

and gas projects for state com-

panies.

In Libya’s capital Tripoli,

still under government con-

trol, prosecutors last summer

arrested two Russian political

consultants, alleging they were

trying to destabilize the gov-

ernment and back opponents,

including Gadhafi’s son and

Gen. Hafter. They alleged the

two men were connected to

Mr. Prigozhin’s Internet Re-

search Group, according to

people close to the investiga-

tion.

The Kremlin has denied

that Russian soldiers operate

in Libya. Libyan officials said

the private nature of Moscow’s

military operations means it

can deny its presence in Libya.

“Russia will say it has noth-

ing to do with [Wagner],” said

Mr. Bashagha, Libya’s interior

minister. “They will say it’s a

security company.”

—Ann Simmons in Moscow

contributed to this article.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera met in October at the first Russia-Africa summit.

RUSSIAN LOOK/ZUMA PRESS

low they can go—even to zero.
Ingredients ranging from
unripe green bananas to lupin
beans are on the table. Wool-
worths, the biggest grocery
chain in Australia, sells a low-
carb bread made with bamboo
fiber. In the U.S., grocery store
Aldi used oat and chicory-root
fiber to create a bread it ad-
vertises as having “zero net
carbs,” meaning the only carbs
are from dietary fiber.
There is a challenge: These
ingredients don’t always be-
have in the oven. Loaves
sometimes expand so rapidly
they pop out of the baking
dish. Some are so brittle that

ContinuedfromPageOne

cracks develop inside. Others

just taste miserable.

Heath Squier, chief execu-

tive at Julian Bakery in Ocean-

side, Calif., wanted to cut

more carbs out of his com-

pany’s already low-carb offer-

ings. So the company rolled

out a new loaf largely made

with almond flour, eggs, but-

ter—and cream cheese, which

helps offset the eggy flavor.

Three loaves cost $40, in-

cluding shipping. Slices have

zero net carbs, according to

the packaging. A typical slice

of white bread has about 12

grams of carbs.

“The biggest thing when

you’re making something from

eggs is to get it to taste good,”

said Mr. Squier, who markets

to people on an ultra-low-carb

diet called the ketogenic diet.

Venerdi, a bakery in New

Zealand, at first tried to make

its own keto-friendly bread us-

ing cauliflower, walnuts and

egg whites, but the loaves

didn’t have enough volume.

When more egg whites were

added, it blew up so big it

touched the oven tray above,

and there were big holes in

the loaves, said Arthur Nagot,

a food technologist there.

Later, Venerdi tried the

powderized tuber-like stem of

the konjac plant. But it sucked

up so much water that when

the bread was sliced, “it

looked like silicon, globs of sil-

icon and glue all through it,”

said Stewart Jessiman, head of

new product development.

The bakery finally came up

with a recipe that uses a tapi-

oca starch that “resists diges-

tion,” as well as green banana

flour and psyllium, a fiber

made from the husks of seeds.

The konjac powder made it in.

Net carbs: less than three

grams per slice.

The perfect low-carb recipe

could make some serious

dough. In recent years, sales

have barely risen in the

roughly $16 billion U.S. bread

market, according to market-

research firm Packaged Facts.

Wheat flour is so good for

baking bread because of glu-

ten, said Richard Charpentier,

a baker in Philadelphia. Yeast

eats sugars in the dough, re-

leases gases, and then gluten,

a protein, acts like a balloon

that stretches and allows the

bread to rise.

Instead of wheat, low-carb

bakers must use other ingredi-

ents such as eggs, fibers and

gums—even a purer form of

gluten stripped of most

carbs—to create a structure

for the bread, said Mr. Char-

pentier, who runs his own con-

sulting firm. Instead of yeast,

baking powder can be used to

create a chemical reaction to

release gas.

Kevin Bae, 53, tried to make

low-carb buns one night in his

suburban Chicago kitchen. He

found a recipe online, but

didn’t have one key ingredient,

psyllium. He used something

else he had on hand: xanthan

gum, a common food thick-

ener.

“They looked pretty good in

the oven and then when I

went to open it, it was like,

‘Hey, these things are hollow,’”

he said. “It is like somebody

stuck a straw in there and

blew some air inside the bun.”

He ate his burgers without

buns that night, but not all

was lost. He created his own

low-carb recipe for popovers,

a type of roll, based on the

goof-up.

Old-fashioned bread lovers

aren’t impressed. Ken Forkish,

author of “Flour Water Salt

Yeast” and owner of a bakery

and pizzeria in Portland, Ore.,

uses almond flour to make

macarons—but only because

that is the traditional recipe.

“Bread has been a founda-

tional food in the Western

world for thousands of years,”

Mr. Forkish said. “Low-carb

bread, it sounds like some-

thing that someone thought

up strictly to create a new cat-

egory for selling something.”

Ms. Culver, who sells colla-

gen-based brownies online at

the Enchanted Cook Keto Bak-

ery website, concedes her

zero-net-carb bread might

taste too light and eggy for

people used to regular bread.

Her husband refuses to eat it

unless she makes modifica-

tions such as increasing the

almond flour, which adds more

texture but also increases the

carbs.

“But if you’re someone who

doesn’t eat bread because of

the carbs, you’re going to be

like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t be-

lieve I’m having bread again,’”

she said.

Gen. Stephen Townsend,
head of the U.S. Africa Com-
mand, warned recently about
Russia’s involvement in a re-
gion that is growing in promi-
nence as a source of natural
resources.
“Russian private military
companies have a highly de-
stabilizing influence in Africa,
as they are frequently em-
ployed to secure Russian in-
vestments at the expense of
Africans, to prop up corrupt
regimes and establish a
broader Russian military foot-
print globally,” he told the
Senate Armed Services panel.
The Kremlin has said its
aims in Africa and the Middle
East are to help fight extrem-
ism and develop regional
economies. It has denied any
connection to private security
contractors.
Once marginalized in Libya
because of its association with
toppled strongman Moammar
Gadhafi, Russia has become, in
just a few months, a pivotal
player there. In January, Mr.
Putin hosted talks in Moscow
between the renegade general
and the head of the interna-
tionally recognized Libyan
government, then followed up
with a summit in Berlin. The
two sides have yet to agree to
a cease-fire.
The Libya foray could give
Russia a foothold in a failed
state that is a significant en-
ergy exporter and a main
route for illegal trafficking in
people, drugs and weapons to
Europe. European officials are
concerned about the precari-
ous state of Libyan security, in
part because regions to its
south are war zones and ter-
rorist breeding grounds.
European Union foreign-
policy chief Josep Borrell said
in January the Russian inter-
vention could have under-
mined its efforts to broker a
deal between Libya’s warring
parties without using force.
“Libya is a big gate to Af-
rica” for Russia, said Libyan
Interior Minister Fathi
Bashagha. “It’s also the en-
trance to Southern Europe.”
Mr. Putin has denied the
Russian government is behind
any private contractors in
Libya. “If there are Russian
citizens there,” he said in Jan-
uary, “they don’t represent the
interests of the Russian state
and don’t receive funding from
the Russian state.”
Mr. Bashagha said the mer-
cenaries are in Libya with the
Kremlin’s approval, citing a
meeting held in Moscow be-
tween the renegade Libyan
general, the Russian defense
ministry and the private sol-
diers’ recruiter.
During the Cold War, the
Soviet Union spent billions on
military aid to African allies.
The collapse of Communist
rule forced a retreat from the
global stage.
Now, at a time of dimin-
ished Russian economic and
military power, its efforts to
exert political influence in-
volve private security compa-
nies and businesses seeking
access to oil, gold and dia-
monds, according to European
security officials who monitor
the groups. The private com-
panies answer to the Kremlin,
these people said.
A Russian company won a
gold-mining contract in Sudan,
where affiliated contractors
have also been training forces,

ContinuedfromPageOne

Proxies Aid

Russian Bid

For Clout

Low-Carb

Bake-Off

Is Rising

ies—arrived in January 2018

on a Russian military plane

with crates of automatic

weapons. Most weren’t mem-

bers of Russia’s armed forces

and wore neither standard

uniforms nor insignia, accord-

ing to officials who saw them

arrive.

When the U.N. approved the

mission, Moscow hadn’t speci-

fied it would be sending pri-

vate contractors rather than

soldiers—something that sur-

prised U.N. officials, according

to people familiar with the

matter.

A spokesman for the U.N.

mission there said the Russian

forces were coordinating with

others to help revamp the na-

tion’s security sector.

Russia now has more than

235 security personnel in the

country, according to a Euro-

pean security official, giving it

greater clout there than any

foreigners since France left in

1960. The senior Russian in
      the country appears to be Va-
      lery Zakharov, a retired Rus-
      sian security-service officer
      who landed several months
      before the troops and became
      President Touadera’s top secu-
      rity adviser.
      In an interview, Mr.
      Zakharov said that he isn’t
      part of the official U.N. mis-
      sion and that he works for and
      is paid by Mr. Touadera, not
      Russia. He described his rela-
      tionship with the Russian gov-
      ernment by saying: “There’s
      no such thing as former” secu-
      rity-service officers.

The Kremlin spokesman

said Mr. Zakharov “has noth-

ing to do with the Russian

government or our embassy or

with Russian intelligence.” He

said Russia is interested in de-

veloping its relationship with

the Central African Republic.

On a dusty field near the

capital, Bangui, last summer,

Russian instructors drilled

dozens of government troops

armed with machetes and ri-

fles. Mr. Zakharov, standing

nearby, said the Russian forces

are paid under arrangements

with Russia’s defense ministry.

He declined to provide details.

The Security Service of

Ukraine, that country’s main

security and counterintelli-

gence agency, is investigating

the quasi-private Russian mili-

tary groups fighting in eastern

Ukraine. It says many of the

Russian soldiers sent to Africa

fought in Ukraine with Wag-

ner.

“It’s a convenient front,”

said the security service Chief

of Staff Ihor Huskov. “The

geopolitical ambitions of Rus-

sia coincide with the appe-

tites” of Mr. Putin’s inner cir-

cle, he said.

The Russian instructors

have moved into the roughly

80% of Central African Repub-

lic outside government con-

trol, according to Western se-

curity officials. As the

Russians deployed, President

Touadera’s government

awarded mining contracts to

Russian companies.

In Libya, Russia’s involve-

ment could give it a foothold

in a major energy and migra-

tion hub near Europe. Libya is

a large exporter of oil and nat-

ural gas to Europe, but most

of its reserves—the largest in

Africa and the ninth-biggest in

the world—are untapped.

After Libyan dictator and

Russian ally Gadhafi was de-

posed and killed in 2011 by

Western-backed rebels, Mr.

Putin said the U.S. and its al-

lies had overstepped a U.N.

mandate. A new Libyan gov-

ernment marginalized Russia.

The U.S. has since with-

drawn from Libya and Russia

has returned. Fayez al-Sarraj,

Libya’s prime minister, at-

tended the Sochi summit and

discussed buying one million

metric tons of Russian wheat,

according to a Libyan security

official.

Moscow simultaneously is

helping Gen. Khalifa Haftar,

who heads a rebel faction

called the Libyan National

Army, by printing Libyan

money for his breakaway gov-

ernment and welcoming him

aboard its aircraft carrier, ac-

cording to Russian and Libyan

government officials.

Sources: reports by the United Nations’s panel on Central African sanctions; Central African government; Russian ministry of foreign affairs; Libyan

ministry of interior; Libyan National Army; Ukrainian and Western intelligence agencies

RUSSIA

Mining

interests

Military

presence

Naval

logistics

Political

influence

Nuclear

power

Oil

interests

Algeria

Angola

BurkinaFaso

CentralAfricanRepublic

Egypt

Eritrea

Libya

Madagascar

Rwanda

SouthAfrica

Sudan

Zimbabwe

Moscow'sLongReach

SomeoftheAfricancountrieswhereRussiangovernmentorprivateinterestshaveestablisheda

presenceorarediscussingdeals.

Russian activity in

the areas coincides

with a pulling back

by the U.S.

Slice the carbs out!