A former professional judoka Randrianasoloniaiko coached Madagascar's national team headed the African Judo Union and the Malagasy Olympic Committee and served as vice-president of the International Judo Federation – roles that brought him into contact with figures close to Vladimir Putin...

Again playing her geopolitical cards President Samia flew to Russia for a 3-5 June state visit at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin...

This matters more because the April meeting predated Assimi Goïta's state visit to Moscow in June 2025 during which President Vladimir Putin encouraged a rapprochement between Mali and Algeria but failed to resolve the differences between Bamako and Algiers (AC Vol 64 No 14 Did Moscow hotline end the UN mission...

But he did not pursue a close relationship with the Soviet Union unlike today's alignment of Burkina Mali and Niger with the positions of Vladimir Putin's Russia on international issues and their visits to Moscow or St Petersburg...

Either way it may concern President Vladimir Putin's government and will complicate efforts by Moscow to cast its intervention as a counter-terrorism success...

‘As in Mali once the US has decided to take an interest and engage with African leaders it has far far deeper pockets than the Kremlin and President Vladimir Putin simply cannot compete ' said one analyst...

The other two important absences were Russia's Vladimir Putin who could have faced attempts to serve an International Criminal Court arrest warrant on him and China's Xi Jinping who sent his prime minister Li Qiang the second highest official in the Beijing government...

Russia continues to run disinformation campaigns via propaganda platforms such as African Initiative including ‘documentaries' promoting the Kremlin's narrative on Ukraine (AC Vol 65 No 16 Moscow sees a year of transition & Vol 65 No 18 Vladimir Putin's Kremlin builds on Wagner's propaganda legacy)...

Several states in the region – including Algeria Mali Mauritania and Morocco – have stepped up their usage of drones sometimes shooting each other's drones down in proxy clashes And internationally Mali's junta is strongly allied to Russia's President Vladimir Putin: Mauritania broadly aligned to the European Union and hostile to Moscow is now developing closer ties with Ukraine...