In the Orthodox Church of St. Andrew in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, the Reverend Régis Saint-Clair Voyemagua “turned his back” on the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and turned to the Moscow Patriarchate.

Russia financed the restoration of the frescoes and the new facade of the temple, and also paid for Voemagua’s three-month stay in Moscow in 2022. there is a civil war in the country, take introductory Russian lessons.

Russian influence here is more than a cultural approach, as the Financial Times notes: it is part of Moscow’s growing influence on the political and economic life of the Central African Republic, one of the poorest and weakest states in the world.

Russia’s presence in the African country is palpable: some 1,500 Wagner mercenaries, a gold and diamond business, and a small distillery that produces Wa Na Wa vodka with a rhinoceros logo and the slogan “Made in the Central African Republic with Russian technology.”

It is “the most telling example of how effective Moscow is in parts of Africa” ​​with a strategy that combines propaganda with arms sales, mining and mercenaries, the FT notes.

“There is a hybrid war going on,” a senior Western diplomat told the Financial Times, referring to Russian ambitions in Africa.

From Mali to Sudan

Samuel Ramani, of the Rusi think tank, who is writing a book on Russian activities in Africa, says Moscow has focused its attention on a zone of states stretching from Mali to Sudan.

Russia is mainly active in French-speaking Africa to the detriment of France. In a number of former French colonies, public opinion associates Paris with attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of countries, and those who took over Russian propaganda are using the anti-French “wave” to create a positive climate in favor of Moscow. .

Close contacts with the military in power

In September, Lieutenant Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, appointed interim prime minister of Mali, spoke of the “French junta” at the UN, praising the “exemplary and fruitful cooperation between Mali and Russia.”

That same month, generals in Burkina Faso seized power for the second time in eight months, as protesters waved Russian flags in the streets of the capital, Ouagadougou.

Nana Akufo-Addo, president of neighboring Ghana, said Burkina Faso’s new junta had already turned to Russian Wagner mercenaries to fight the jihadists. “Today, Russian mercenaries are on our northern border,” he said in December.

Burkina Faso denied the accusations, but in January gave French troops stationed in the country since 2018 a month to leave.

In Sudan, also a volatile country, Moscow has developed close ties with Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemeti, the second-in-command in power since a 2019 coup to topple former dictator Omar al-Bashir.

Russian companies operating in Sudan are profiting from illegal gold exports, according to the US Treasury Department, which estimates supplies have increased since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow has also secured an agreement on military access to Port Sudan, a strategic point on the Red Sea. Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin denies any connection to mines in Sudan or the Central African Republic.

Putin first announced his ambitions for Africa in October 2019 when he hosted the leaders of 43 African states at the first Russia-Africa summit in Sochi. Since then, a number of countries, from the Central African Republic to Mali and from Burkina Faso to Sudan, have moved closer to Moscow’s “sphere of influence”.

In Mali, Colonel Asimi Goita, head of the military junta, is following the example of the Central African Republic by hiring Wagner mercenaries to fight insurgents who, in Mali’s case, are linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. The French ambassador was expelled in 2021.

While trade between Russia and Africa in 2021 was “only” $15.6 billion, according to the IMF – a tiny fraction of the $254 billion in trade deals between China and Africa in the same year – Moscow, according to the Financial Times had a disproportionate impact. .

Russia’s strategy has been boosted as part of Putin’s broader propaganda agenda, which portrays Russia as a “bastion against Western adventurism” in countries like Iraq and Libya.

Financial Times source