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Burkina Faso

Putin’s gambit in the Sahel as France leaves the stage

Moscow courts the three juntas with anti-western rhetoric and promises of gold refineries and nuclear power but is struggling to counter insurgents

On 14 August, the defence ministers of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – Generals Sadio Camara, Célestin Simporé and Salifou Modi – were in Moscow for talks with their Russian counterpart, Andrei Belousov. This was more of an invitation than a summons – unlike in December 2019, when France’s President Emmanuel Macron called five Sahelian leaders (four democratically elected at the time) to the air base in Pau, near the Pyrénées to explain rising anti-French sentiment. That meeting entrenched resentment more deeply than even its participants foresaw. Four years later, three of those heads of state had been ousted and French troops sent home – replaced by Russians.

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