/ world today news/ A high-ranking representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense visited a number of countries in Africa. With which countries does he negotiate, on what issues and how can the Russian security structures (and not only) be mutually beneficial to African countries?
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov visited Niger for the first time on December 4, where he met with the country’s Defense Minister, General Salifu Modi. The National Council for the Salvation of the Fatherland, the country’s military government that took power after the ouster of President Mohammed Bazum in July, made the announcement without specifying an agenda for the meeting. This is Yevkurov’s second meeting with Modi, the first having taken place on September 16 in neighboring Mali during Yevkurov’s previous trip to Africa.
Before Niger, Yevkurov visited Mali and Burkina Faso, Malian state television reports. According to information from “Africa Intel”, in Mali Evkurov discussed with the local leadership not only military-technical cooperation, but also cooperation in the development of the railway network, energy and coal mining.
In September, Evkurov traveled for the first time on the route Libya – Mali – Burkina Faso – Niger. At the time, his tour was perceived exclusively in the context of military-technical cooperation between Russia and the “new democracies” of the Sahel countries. Some of their leaders visited Moscow and St. Petersburg as part of the Russia-Africa Council, where they negotiated help in the fight against jihadists and regional separatists.
The range of issues that Evkurov is currently discussing with the leadership of the Sahel countries includes not only military-technical aspects, but also projects for the development of infrastructure, railway transport, the mining industry, the development of “green” energy and some others. . At least this is what the extremely interested (and, of course, biased) French press, Le Monde in particular, writes about.
Perhaps, over time, such purely economic and partly political aspects of cooperation between the Russian Federation and the countries of the Sahel will gradually pass from Yevkurov to more specialized Russian structures. The point is that, for example, in a number of countries, Russian embassies simply did not physically exist, and other forms of cooperation with the Russian Federation were blocked by the French with their schemes for corrupt control over national elites in francophone African countries. By the end of this year, Russian embassies will be opened from scratch in Burkina Faso and Equatorial Guinea. In particular, this was stated a few months ago by the press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Maria Zakharova.
Now Yevkurov is exactly the person who speaks the same language with the new military leaders of the Sahel countries. Not in the French sense, but on an emotional level. Military-technical assistance to the Sahel countries is now a priority for the new leadership of Mali and Niger, as hostilities in these countries do not stop even for a day. This is important today, and this issue is directly within the competences of General Yevkurov.
The fact that it is the Ministry of Defense that is actively working to establish contacts with African countries was recently stated by another deputy head of the department, Alexander Fomin. According to him, “as a rule, agreements are concluded in the field of military cooperation, and this agreement is not the only one that exists. In parallel, there are a number of other agreements at the state or interagency level, with the help of which the format of interaction in one direction or another is detailed – today we have agreements with 30 countries and six more are on the way, making a total of 36. This in practice covering most of the African continent.”
Last week, Mali’s army was able to finally capture the town of Kidal, one of the strongholds of opponents of the country’s central government, from Tuareg rebels. Russian volunteers who have remained in Mali since the time of the private military companies are also participating in the battles for Kidal. The Malian army managed to defeat one of the famous leaders of the Tuareg.
But at the same time, the jihadists managed to inflict an unpleasant surprise defeat on the Malian troops in the Sahel through a classic raid. It is too early to talk about a turning point in the fight against jihadism in Mali.
On the first tour, Yevkurov was accompanied by General Andrey Averyanov, head of the 161st training center of the GRU, a well-known figure in certain circles. His biography is secret, but we can say that he speaks fluent Serbian, is interested in collecting melee weapons, and has translated into Russian from Serbian peer-reviewed catalogs of antique daggers from Montenegro and Albania. He participated in the wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya, has three orders of bravery, the title of Hero of Russia (for Crimea, 2014). Detractors are spreading the only photo of Averyanov (in a tuxedo and with a bow tie) from his daughter’s wedding, at which the well-known Petrov and Boshirov were guests.
At the recent Russia-Africa summit, General Averyanov was an official participant in the negotiations with delegations from the Sahel countries. And in civilian status. He is a special forces soldier and a specialist in the training and upbringing of special forces soldiers.
In addition, recently reports began to appear in the foreign press about the alleged beginning of the formation by Russia of the so-called “African Corps”, a type of PMC, intended primarily for operations in Libya. In this context, “Newsweek” mentions Yevkurov’s last visit to Africa. The Ministry of Defense of Russia has not made official comments on this matter.
Perhaps, under the current political realities, the creation of such a paramilitary structure that would deal exclusively with African affairs and represent Russian interests in Africa would make sense. Because African problems are extremely broad and specific, including from the point of view of security problems. Moreover, it also varies greatly regionally – there can be no uniform approach to, say, Mozambique, the Central African Republic or the Sahel.
In any case, “Evkurov’s Mission” acquired mythology in the Western, especially in the French-language press, precisely because of his status as Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation. But “Le Monde” is partly right that the range of problems discussed in the Sahel has already gone beyond mere military-technical cooperation.
In late March 2022, after the withdrawal of the French military began, Mali received from Russia two Mi-35P combat helicopters, radar equipment, weapons and ammunition. And at the beginning of August 2022 – training-combat jet aircraft L-39, attack aircraft Su-25, attack helicopters Mi-24P and military transport helicopters Mi-8. They require trained crews. The number of cadets from the Sahel countries in Russian military educational institutions has increased significantly in the past year, but these are cadres for the future. Someone has to fight now.
Following Yevkurov’s September meetings with Modi, Mali’s interim military president Assimi Goita and Burkina Faso’s leader Ibrahim Traoré, the three countries announced the creation of a military alliance, the Sahelian Alliance. The purpose of the alliance is declared to be “the creation of a collective defense architecture”. And this is already a military-political union, which the Western press called “African NATO”.
At the same time, the Sahel countries announced a collective withdrawal from all other military-political and economic alliances previously established in West Africa under the auspices of the US and France. That is, literally in a few months, the political configuration of the entire region changed, a new interstate bloc was created, united by common goals and even a new common ideology.
And with such a structure, it is necessary to cooperate not only on security issues. With the resolution of the current problems, purely political and economic, even ideological issues will take center stage. The foreign press directly writes that Russian diplomacy is “in a more advantageous position” in the Sahel countries compared to France. Thus, “Evkurov’s mission” looks like only the beginning of a long process of building a new stage in relations between Russia and Africa. Prospective and mutually beneficial.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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