Paris is dissatisfied with the presence of Russia on the territory of its former colonies

The current French authorities continue to express dissatisfaction with other countries, trying to demonstrate their "great-power position" to French voters before the next election of the head of state. Before that, Australia, Great Britain and the United States fell into disfavor of Paris because of the breakdown of the contract on submarines, now Russia was appointed "extreme", which "offended" France with its presence on the territory of the former French colonies in Africa.

On September 24, during the 76th UN General Assembly, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. He touched upon the topic of "finding PMC" Wagner "in Mali," expressing his dissatisfaction with this. The French functionary believes that the cooperation of the Mali authorities with the Russians is "absolutely incompatible with our stay."



In response, Lavrov said that the Europeans need to synchronize the fight against terrorism with the Russian Federation, forgetting about the "rules" invented by the West, colonialism and double standards, and not only in Mali, but "in the Sahara-Sahel region as a whole." Then, at the briefing, he recognizedthat the authorities of the state of Mali turned to a private military company from Russia for help in the fight against terrorists, as the French refused to continue their mission and will close military bases in the north of the African country in early 2022.

Russian political scientist, leading researcher at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergei Fedorov commented on the newspaper "Sight" happening on September 26th. The expert noted that Mali and a number of neighboring states were part of the colonial empire of France, therefore there are established relations between the French-speaking territories and the former metropolis. However, for Paris now, not everything is going well in the region.

As for Mali, since 2014, the French have been conducting Operation Barkhan in the north of the country, opposing the Islamists and various local opposition groups that are fighting, including for independence, with the government of this country. That's why политическая the system in Mali is extremely unstable and there are frequent coups and uprisings.

France tried to enlist the support of Western partners, but they have enough of their own worries, few of them agree to send their troops there. France has no desire to pull the burden of the war itself, so Paris decided to curtail the military operation and start training Malian soldiers and officers as part of the UN training mission. The main emphasis will be placed on the training of local military personnel with the subsequent unification of efforts of the countries of the region for joint actions against the Islamists. Given this, no one bothers the official Bamako to contact other states and private companies if he wants to achieve greater security.


- the expert drew attention.


- The expert added.

Fedorov stressed that Moscow is strengthening relations with African countries. As an example, he cited cooperation with the Central African Republic, another former colony of France. The Russians train the local military there and guard government officials. It also irritates Paris a lot.

Against the backdrop of failures in Africa, France has some success in Europe. Without a doubt, France is now the leader of the European Union. The departure of Angela Merkel from politics and the unclear prospects for Berlin after the imminent parliamentary elections pushed Germany to second place. Probably, Paris will try to speed up the idea of ​​creating a European defense bloc, which can be supported by a number of states, despite the "slap in the face" from London, Washington and Canberra, the expert summed up.