Article/ Musa Teho Say
How did Russia exploit the erosion of France’s image to encroach on Africa?
“Nelson Mandela” said when he was released from prison in the late nineties of the last century: We cannot do without Russia and its support for the struggle and national liberation movement in South Africa against Western-backed apartheid, expressing gratitude for the Russian role in supporting African liberation movements that the Soviet Union had previously supported within the struggle of Africans for independence from the French colonizer in the mid-twentieth century, including the Central African Republic, where Russia began its rough entry into the continent recently..
However, the Russian presence declined to a large extent after the fall of the Soviet Union, and Russia was satisfied with only exporting weapons to Africans and maintained its position as the primary source of weapons to Africa; Surpassing any other country due to the absence of complex conditions for purchasing weapons such as the issue of human rights and promoting democracy and political pluralism..
The end of winter hibernation and Putin’s arrival to power
A few years after the current Russian President “Vladimir Putin” came to power in Russia, the empire’s expansionist ambitions returned and Russia turned its face to Africa again to revive old relations and reap the fruits of its support for the liberation movements in the past, carrying with it the slogan of getting rid of the curse of colonialism again and fighting terrorism “the slogan of the consuming West until the end”.
Russia’s strategy to strengthen its presence in Africa
Russia was keen to use soft power as a front to consolidate its influence in the dark continent, including writing off half of Russia’s debts in the continent at about $50 billion, some of which date back to the time of the Soviet Union. The 2019 Russian-African “Sochi” summit was a milestone in reorganizing the relationship with Africans in several fields, most notably energy, agriculture, technology, and others cultural, diplomatic and academic fields, and agreements were signed at about $20 billion.
One of the most prominent of these agreements that Moscow seems to be more interested in than the Africans themselves is the energy file; Where the Russian gas giant “Gazprom” plays an important role in the oil and gas sector in Africa, including Nigeria and Angola, along with Rosatom, the state nuclear energy company, which is working to build nuclear reactors in Egypt, Ethiopia and other countries if the necessary security and political conditions for operating there are met.
But many of the agreements signed with Africa in recent years have not been implemented for unknown reasons, with the exception of some cultural centers, embassies and security missions to help impose security and prepare the climate for Russian companies to operate on the continent.
Hard power..
As usual, “Putin” resorted to hard power in his cold war with the West in Africa and used his effective tool in conflict zones “Wagner” in several important countries, and this constituted a geostrategic shift in the Sahel region and Libya, taking advantage of the security fragility and political conflicts that extend to almost all parts of the continent.
Starting from the Sahel and Libya
The five Sahel countries (Niger, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso and Chad) are a direct point of collision with Western powers, especially France, which has considered this region its own space for about 60 years; but it began to lose its official incubator after the change of many political regimes loyal to it, such as the Central African Republic, where Russia set its first foot in 2016 when it sent military trainers to provide assistance to President Faustin Archange following the civil war and the rejection of the election results.
This gave Russia a suitable climate to market itself as a non-colonial power that provides support to countries without interfering in the internal details of governance or imposing a certain pattern in the matter of benefiting from the country’s wealth, unlike France, which presents its vision as obligatory in exchange for supporting the political system.
A few months after the arrival of Russian trainers to Bangui, the country’s capital, Moscow indirectly sent Wagner to protect government figures, headed by the president himself and a number of important institutions, before the Russians built an advanced base that later became one of the largest Russian bases outside Russia after Hmeimim in Syria, with about 4,000 Wagner Company personnel.
In contrast, French influence is declining dramatically amid growing popular discontent with it, supported by Russian media “propaganda” about Paris’ exploitation of the continent’s wealth and deepening the state of hatred for French colonialism rooted in the minds of African youth who are enthusiastic about change at any cost, which forced the Elysee to announce a gradual withdrawal of its presence in the Central African Republic and the Sahel region, where France has been present since independence in the mid-twentieth century, and it has only a few soldiers left in the Central African Republic present in a base that includes the UN peacekeeping forces “MINUSCA”.
Wagner’s expansion towards Libya and Mali.
In late 2017, Russia sent military trainers to Benghazi to help Haftar’s forces maintain tanks and their old weapons from Colonel Gaddafi’s legacy, before the matter developed into bringing Wagner in large numbers in the midst of Haftar’s war on Tripoli in April 2019.
Because it was an unusual opportunity for the Russians, Putin’s chef, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, deliberately established Moscow’s foothold in one of the largest areas of Western influence; taking advantage of the unprecedented withdrawal of the US administration during Trump’s presidency, which was characterized by a decline in the US role internationally and an increase in the rate of conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, including the wave of so-called counter-revolutions that Trump kept silent about or supported, as some accuse him..
And only a few months later, the West suddenly discovered that Libya had become Russia’s second area of influence after Syria; Wagner possesses an arsenal of weapons that far exceeds what most African countries possess in terms of air defense systems and advanced military bases in eastern, central and southern Libya, which is considered a very important geographical area as it forms an important belt for the Sahel region that connects it to the southern coasts.
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