[b]A senior representative of the Russian Defense Ministry visited a number of countries in Africa. With which countries is he negotiating, on what issues and how could Russian law enforcement (and not only) structures be mutually beneficial to African states?[b]
On December 4, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov visited Niger for the first time, where he met with the country's Defense Minister, General Salifu Modi. This was announced (without specifying the agenda of the meeting) by the National Council for the Salvation of the Motherland, the military government of the country that came to power after the overthrow of President Mohamed Bazoum in July. This is the second meeting between Yevkurov and Modi, the first was held on September 16 in neighboring Mali during Yevkurov's previous trip to Africa.
Before Niger, Yevkurov visited Mali and Burkina Faso, Malian state television ORTN reports. According to Africa Intel, in Mali, Yevkurov 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, Yevkurov traveled for the first time on the Libya–Mali – Burkina Faso –Niger route. At that time, his tour was perceived exclusively in the context of Russia's military-technical cooperation with 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 assistance in the fight against jihadists and regional separatists.
The range of issues that Yevkurov 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, extractive industry, the development of "green energy" and some others. At least, this is what the extremely interested (and, of course, biased) French press, in particular Le Monde, writes about.
Perhaps, over time, such purely economic and partly political aspects of cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Sahel countries will gradually move from Yevkurov to more specialized Russian structures. The fact is that, for example, Russian embassies simply did not physically exist in a number of countries, and other forms of cooperation with the Russian Federation were blocked by the French with their schemes of corruption control over national elites in francophone African countries. By the end of this year, Russian embassies in Burkina Faso and Equatorial Guinea will be opened from scratch. In particular, this was stated a few months ago by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.
Yevkurov is now just the man who speaks the same language with the new military leaders of the Sahel countries. Not in the French sense, but emotionally. Military and technical assistance to the Sahel countries is now a priority for the new leadership of Mali and Niger, since the fighting in these countries does not stop for a day. This is important today, and this issue is directly within the competence 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 does not live alone. It has in parallel a number of other agreements at the state or interdepartmental levels, with the help of which the format of interaction in one direction or another is detailed... To date, we have agreements with 30 States – and six more are in line... The total will be 36. It practically covers most of the African continent."
The Malian army last week managed to finally recapture the city of Kidal from the Tuareg rebels, one of the strongholds of opponents of the country's central government. Russian volunteers who have remained in Mali since the days of private military companies also participated in the battles for Kidal. The Malian army managed to win over one of the famous Tuareg leaders.
But at the same time, the jihadists were able to inflict an unpleasant unexpected defeat on the Malian troops in the Sahel through a classic raid. It is premature to talk about a turning point in the fight against jihadism in Mali.
On the first tour, Yevkurov was accompanied by General Andrey Averyanov, the head of the 161st GRU training center, a famous man in certain circles. His biography is secret, but we can say that he speaks Serbian fluently, is fond of collecting edged weapons and translated into Russian from Serbian the review catalogs of ancient daggers of Montenegro and Albania. He participated in the wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya, he has three Orders of Courage, the title of Hero of Russia (for Crimea, 2014). Detractors are replicating the only photo of Averyanov (in a tuxedo and with a bow tie) from his daughter's wedding, where the notorious Petrov and Boshirov appeared as guests.
At the recent Russia–Africa summit, General Averyanov was an official participant in negotiations with delegations from the Sahel countries. Moreover, in a civil status. He is a special forces soldier and a specialist in the training and education of special forces soldiers.
Also recently, reports have begun to appear in the foreign press about the alleged beginning of Russia's formation of the so–called Afrika Korps, a kind of PMCs designed primarily for operations in Libya. It is in this context that Newsweek mentions Yevkurov's last visit to Africa. The Russian Defense Ministry did not give any official comments on this matter.
Perhaps, in the current political realities, the creation of such a paramilitary structure – which would deal exclusively with African affairs and represent Russia's interests in Africa – could really make sense. Because the African problem is extremely extensive and specific, including from the point of view of security issues. In addition, it also varies greatly regionally – there cannot be a single approach to, say, Mozambique, the CAR or the Sahel.
In any case, the "Yevkurov mission" has become a mythology in the Western and especially French-speaking 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 issues discussed in the Sahel has already gone beyond just military-technical cooperation.
At the end of March 2022, after the French military began withdrawing, Mali received two Mi-35P combat helicopters, radar equipment, weapons and ammunition from Russia. And in early August 2022, L–39 combat training jets, Su-25 attack aircraft, Mi-24P attack helicopters and Mi-8 military transport helicopters. They require trained crews. The number of cadets from the Sahel countries in Russian military educational institutions has increased significantly over the past year, but these are cadres for the future. Someone has to fight right now.
After Yevkurov's September meetings with Modi, Mali's interim military President Assimi Goita and Burkina Faso's leader Ibrahim Traore, the three countries announced the formation of a military alliance, the Alliance of Sahel States. The goal of the union is declared to be "the creation of a collective defense architecture." And this is already a military-political alliance, which the Western press has managed to christen the "African NATO".
At the same time, the Sahel countries announced their collective withdrawal from all other military-political and economic unions previously established in West Africa under the auspices of the United States and France. That is, in just a few months, the political configuration of the whole region has changed, a new interstate bloc has been created, united by common goals and even a new common ideology.
And it is necessary to cooperate with such a structure not only in security matters. As the current problems are resolved, purely political, economic and even ideological issues will come to the fore. The foreign press directly writes that Russian diplomacy is "in a more advantageous position" in the Sahel states compared to France. Thus, the "Yevkurov mission" looks like only the beginning of a long process of building a new stage in relations between Russia and Africa. Promising and mutually beneficial.
Evgeny Krutikov
