By RFIPosted on 23-10-2019Modified on 23-10-2019 at 04:29

In Sochi opens on Wednesday, October 23 the first big Russia-Africa summit, where there will be question of collaboration between African countries and Russia. But Moscow is already pushing its interests in many states of the continent.

With our special correspondent in Sochi, Florence Morice

It is with North Africa that Russia has the most important trade. In the lead, Egypt and Algeria. Thanks to these two countries, Russia is the largest arms exporter to the continent .

Historically, Egypt was the gateway and then the fulcrum of Soviet policy in Arab Africa from Nasser to the 1972 break under Sadat. And the return to power of the military in Cairo in 2013 marked a turning point.

Arnaud Dubien

23-10-2019 - By Daniel Vallot

High on the Russian chessboard are also several countries with which Moscow had established ties during the Cold War, which it sought to reactivate as a priority: Angola whose current President Lourenco was formed in Moscow and where Russia is well established in the diamond sector, Madagascar, a "brother" country in the Soviet era when Russia is accused of having influenced the 2018 election and to a lesser extent Ethiopia, which concluded with Moscow an agreement on civilian nuclear power.

But now, Russia is trying to expand its links beyond its former zone of influence. The most resounding example is that of the Central African Republic , where Russia is conducting a double offensive on security and mining lands.

Our two countries, through our leaders, want this cooperation to expand. It is not limited to security cooperation alone. The Government of the Central African Republic intends to deploy its cooperation with all the friendly countries that wish it and on all sectors of activity: military, security, economic, cultural health and others. It is so with Russia as with others.

CAR wants to expand cooperation with Russia

23-10-2019 - By Charlotte Cosset

But the Russian appetite does not stop there. In total, some 30 African states have already signed military or technical cooperation agreements with the Russians, including Mali, and the DRC.

An all-out offensive amidst opportunities that some observers deem to be "messy" and whose economic benefits are uncertain for the moment. Not to mention that Russia has recently suffered some setbacks, with the forced departure of Jacob Zuma from the South African presidency and the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir , which she had supported, and on which she had bet.

♦ Madagascar, suspicion of interference and mining interests

Moscow's interest in the Big Island is recent and is about five years old. And until the presidential election of 2018, no tangible fact showed a real desire to expand in Madagascar. It was only during the campaign of this election that the first suspicions of Russian interventionism appeared.

Media destabilization, financial support ... Since then, several small candidates have confirmed that they have received large sums of money to finance their campaign in exchange for calling their constituents to vote in the second round for outgoing President Hery Rajaonarimampianina. But the latter having been eliminated in the first round, the Russians then asked to fall back on Andry Rajoelina, according to the testimony of two candidates to our colleagues BBC.

Has Russia financed the current president? Or did she help him in one way or another? There are rumors of it, but no proof has ever been provided. The latter has also denied this information.

In addition to this desire to influence the course of the election, what did the Russians bet on? On the mines, first to try to grab some market share to the Chinese, Canadians or Australians. For example, in August 2018, for example, a Russian company - Ferrum Mining LLC - established a joint venture with Kraoma, the Malagasy state-owned company exploiting chromium, in which the state was no longer in the majority. Geological studies, exploration of deposits, exploitation: Russian companies have been operating on Malagasy soil since 2017.

On the other hand, in the military field, cooperation between the two nations has been strengthened in the last two years, and not always in a transparent way. Finally, the reopening of the debate on the Scattered Islands - French islands claimed by Madagascar, could sign the visible and frank return of Russia as support for the Malagasy authorities in the negotiations.

    On the same subject

    Central Africa at the heart of Russian "soft power" in Africa

    What is Russia doing in Africa?

    Second delivery of weapons from Russia to the CAR

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