Central African Republic “captured by Russian mercenaries”, Mozambique “restarts” relations with Russia, Congo offers military cooperation to Russia, Djibouti conciders building a Russian military base.
All this is not the paranoid headlines of CNN. This is the reality of the last two months.
When the Central African Republic celebrated the second anniversary of the election for the presidential post of Fosten-Arkanja Tuader, the president arrived at the stadium, built once by the French, accompanied by a suspiciously white guard in camouflage without insignia.
Normally, such measures should have been carried by Rwandans from the remnants of UN peacekeeping forces in the CAR. But a week earlier, previously unknown, but well-armed and organized people replaced Rwandan patrols on the streets of the city.
His administration officially announced that from now on “there is a detachment of Russian special forces to strengthen the security of the president.”
On March 31, President of Tuader accepted the parade of the first company (200 men) of the Central African army, which was completely rearmed with Russian weapons, dressed in Russian camouflage, with Russians in command of the parade
The americans were especially outraged by the fact that the President of the Tuder ordered to give the “Russians” the remainder of Ford technicals, which had previously been delivered by the Pentagon to the CAR in the framework of military assistance.
Then Tuader handed over to Russian military advisers for residing and as a headquarters “Berengo Palace” – the former residence of the infamous dictator Bokassa, standing abandoned in the suburbs of Bangui.
For President Tuader, the effectiveness of the actions of the invited contingent in protecting the borders, the destruction of the very fact of the threat from the islamic extremists and the final restoration of security throughout the country, starting with the capital, are more important. And if the French could not cope with this, then why not try the Russians.
But the recent Russian agreement with Mozambique remained less noticeable in the Western media. First, the defense ministers of Russia and Mozambique signed an agreement on the free entry of Russian warships into the Mozambican ports. Under this agreement, Russian warships can, according to a simplified scheme, stop in the Mozambican ports for maintenance and refueling, which turns this South African country practically into a base for the Russian Navy. This, of course, is not a full-fledged base, as in Syrian Tartous, but close to that.
Then (December 22, 2015), a full-fledged agreement on military-technical cooperation was signed, providing for the supply of Russian arms, equipment and personnel training to Mozambique. And right now – on May 28, 2018 – Mozambique’s Foreign Minister Jose Pasheque said that the nomenclature of these supplies is being discussed.
Negotiations on the construction of a Russian military base in Djibouti next to the already operating Chinese and not far from the American one have been going on for a long time, but were interrupted due to the financial crisis.
The Americans argue that the unexpected and massive Russian “invasion of Africa” is the beginning of a large-scale “battle for Africa,” in which, unlike the proxy wars of the Cold War, not only purely armed methods but also political technologies will be used. It is alleged that there is a Russian “African project”.