The Russian citizens detained in Luanda allegedly intended to overthrow the current regime and “cause political alternation, leading the UNITA party to power” or force change “within the leadership of the MPLA party”, indicates the accusation from the Angolan Public Ministry (MP).
According to the indictment, dated November 26th and to which Lusa had access this Wednesday, December 3rd, Igor Rotchin Mihailovich, aged 38, and Lev Matveevich Lakshtanov, aged 64, and the Angolans Amor Carlos Tomé, journalist, aged 38, and Oliveira Francisco, political leader of UNITA, the largest Angolan opposition party, aged 32, arrested on August 7th this year, they committed the crimes of espionage, terrorist organization and financing of terrorism, public instigation of crime, terrorism, active corruption of an official and illicit introduction of foreign currency into the country.
In the indictment, the MP indicates that, after the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, in August 2023, the African assets of the Wagner Group 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 by Angola Politology, with a project called “Angola Political Science”, led by the defendant Igor Mihailovich, head of the directorate in the country.
The defendants Lev Lakshtanov, Amor Carlos Tomé and Oliveira Francisco are salaried members of the organization, whose activity includes secret networks of political technologists, professionalized propaganda media, 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, cyber espionage”, describes the MP.
According to the accusation, in order to implement its projects, “and to offer a legal face”, the organization claimed that it intended to create the Angola-Russia House of Culture, but its political objectives involved “concrete acts of destabilization of the country, so that they could provoke political alternation, leading the UNITA party to power, or alternatively, if it is not possible to lead the UNITA party to power, force the alternation to occur within the leadership of the MPLA party [no poder]influencing the nomination of a pro-Russian President.”
To carry out his tasks, the defendant Oliveira Francisco took on the political part, with the responsibility of creating conditions to bring the Russian defendants closer to the presidency of UNITA, “in order to lead them to a partnership and exchange of services, by signing a memorandum”, he continues.
The contacts made by Oliveira Francisco, national secretary for urban mobilization of the United Revolutionary Youth of Angola (JURA), a UNITA youth organization, began with Manuel Ekuikui “Nelito Ekuikui”, general secretary of JURA, and then went on to General Armindo Paulo Lukamba “Gato”, the organization’s interlocutor, as well as the leader of UNITA, Adalberto Costa Júnior, the indictment reads.
In one of the meetings held, the partnership for the 2027 elections was allegedly discussed, after which “proposals already discussed with party president Adalberto Costa Júnior” were presented for financial assistance, security, training of party staff abroad and assistance in obtaining information, writes the MP.
“The defendant Amor Carlos Tomé was responsible for identifying leaders and militants of UNITA or MPLA [partido no poder] that are critical of the current leadership of the respective parties, identify economic objectives that can serve the interests of the defendants, identify and recruit journalists”, he adds.
According to the accusation, 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, “tending to create a generalized feeling of insecurity and repulsion towards the current government and which would ultimately lead to social upheavals and the desired political alternation”.
It was the defendant Amor Carlos Tomé who provided contacts for MPLA figures, promoting meetings between the Russian defendants and General Higino Carneiro, a pre-candidate for the leadership of the MPLA, the engineer António Venâncio, who also aspires to lead the party, as well as General Julião Mateus Paulo “Dino Matrosse”, former general secretary of the party, he said.
On June 2, 2025, reports the MP in the indictment, “the defendants began to plan the creation and holding of a large-scale demonstration initially against hunger”, and on July 16 of the same year, the defendants Amor Carlos Tomé and Lev Lakshtanov “were already aware of everything that was going to happen in Luanda”, in an allusion to the taxi drivers’ strike that took place in Luanda, between the 28th and 30th of July, resulting in riots.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office claims to have reached this conclusion because the defendant Amor Carlos Tomé had sent, on July 16, to the defendant Lev Lakshtanov a text with the title “taxi drivers paralyze in Luanda”, 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 coercive measure of preventive detention was applied to the defendants.