HOW curious it was to see a video address by the late Russian Wagner group mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin surface this week from what appeared to…
A Russian flag hangs on the monument of the Russian instructors in Bangui, during a march in 2022 in support of Russia and China's presence in the Central African Republic
How curious it was too that around the same time that Prigozhin’s plane was falling from the sky, his former Kremlin pal Russian president Vladimir Putin was making a video appearance of his own yesterday at the Brics summit in Johannesburg.Putin of course could not actually be there in person, wanted as he is for war crimes under a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over the conflict in Ukraine.
We have of course been here before back in the Cold War when Africa became the battle ground for superpower politics between East and West, Communism and the so called “Free World”. And some of those battles were significant ones indeed even if now consigned to a seemingly forgotten history.For example, I wonder how many people reading this will be familiar with the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale that was fought off and on in the country of Angola between August 1987 and March 1988.
Prigozhin’s death will not change Russia’s ambitions in Africa where Wagner until now led the charge. Wagner’s future in Africa might be in question, but Russia’s military intelligence GRU has long wanted to call the shots on its own over policy in Africa and that might be one of many reasons why a decision was perhaps made that Prigozhin and Wagner were surplus to requirements.
Only last year Biden was at pains while in South Africa to reassure that Washington’s strategy across the continent was to value African nations as partners rather than levers in a global rivalry with Russia and China.
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