# Yunus-Bek Yevkurov **Yunus-Bek Yevkurov** (born 1963) is the Russian Deputy Defence Minister who took apart [[Yevgeny Prigozhin]]'s empire for the state. After the [[Wagner Group Mutiny]] he toured Wagner's client governments to tell them Moscow was taking over, oversaw the creation of [[Africa Corps]], and went after Wagner's Syrian oil business. He is the political face of Russia's state security business in Africa; GRU general [[Andrey Averyanov]] reportedly handles the military side. ## Career | Date | Role | |---|---| | Jun 1999 | Leads the paratroop detachment in Russia's dash to seize Pristina airport in Kosovo ahead of NATO forces | | 2000 | Hero of the Russian Federation | | 2008–2019 | Head of the Republic of Ingushetia; survives a suicide car bomb on his convoy in June 2009 | | Jul 2019 | Deputy Defence Minister | | Jun 24, 2023 | Filmed with Prigozhin at the seized Southern Military District headquarters in Rostov-on-Don during the mutiny; Lukashenko later credited him with helping end it | | Aug–Sep 2023 | With Averyanov, visits [[Libya]], [[Burkina Faso]], [[Mali]], Niger and CAR to take over Wagner's relationships (WSJ) | | Dec 2023 | Reported to command the new Africa Corps (Vedomosti); Niamey talks with Niger's junta leader, the first visit by a Russian government member since the July coup | | 2024 | Presses Syrian oil firms to drop Prigozhin's [[Evro Polis]] for a ministry-linked company (May); meets [[Khalifa Haftar]] in Benghazi (May 31–June 1); named deputy head of the council for the border regions of Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk (August); promoted to army general (December) | He survived the 2024 purge of the Defence Ministry under Andrei Belousov and was still listed as deputy minister in sanctions records updated in September 2026, though no dated 2026 news report confirming him in post was found. He is sanctioned by the EU, US, UK and other governments. ## See Also - [[Africa Corps]] · [[Andrey Averyanov]] · [[Wagner Group Mutiny]] · [[Evro Polis]] · [[Khalifa Haftar]] · [[Niger]]