Russia has established a strong military presence in the Central African Republic (CAR) over the past four years, clandestinely using dubious actors like the military company Wagner, which is allegedly close to President Vladimir Putin. Wagner has become the deniable vanguard of a major Russian push into Africa, many analysts believe. Wagner, supposedly run – or at least funded – by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, the man often called ‘Putin’s chef’, may already have made itself indispensable to President Faustin-Archange Touadéra. This raises serious questions about whether it can be – or indeed should be – dislodged.