Russia's Escalating Influence in Africa

by Judith Bergman • June 20, 2022 at 5:00 am

"Russia relies on a series of asymmetric (and often extralegal) measures for influence—mercenaries, arms-for-resource deals, opaque contracts, election interference, and disinformation." — Joseph Siegle, Director of Research at the Brookings Institution's Africa Center for Strategic Studies, February 2, 2022.
Although trade between Russia and African countries has reportedly doubled since 2015, to about $20 billion a year, China is still Africa's largest trade partner, with trade between China and the continent at $254 billion in 2021. But Russia's ultimate aims in Africa are the same as China's: To gain influence by making African countries dependent on its services. While in the case of China, investments and infrastructure are offered in exchange for strategic access to vital natural resources and political leverage, in the case of Russia, it is weapons and Russian state-sponsored mercenaries, known as private military companies (PMCs) in return for the same.
"In its African strategy, the Kremlin is motivated foremost by a desire to thwart U.S. policy objectives, almost irrespective of their substance.. Considering Africa 'one of Russia's foreign policy priorities,' Russian President Vladimir Putin also seeks to create African dependencies on Moscow's military assets .... targeting countries that have fragile governments but are often rich in important raw materials, such as oil, gold, diamonds, uranium, and manganese... They also offer to these governments the ability to conduct counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations unconstrained by human rights responsibilities... In turn, Russia seeks payment in concessions for natural resources, substantial commercial contracts, or access to strategic locations, such as airbases or ports." — Federica Saini Fasanotti, the Brookings Institution, February 8, 2022.
The largest and most famous of Russia's PMCs is the Wagner Group, a paramilitary organization linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Vladimir Putin. Although ostensibly appearing as a private business, "its management and operations are deeply intertwined with the Russian military and intelligence community" according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and should be seen, therefore, as "a proxy organization of the Russian state rather than a private company selling services on the open market."
"Russia's Wagner Group has withdrawn about 1,300 of its mercenaries from Libya to Russia through Syria to participate in the Russian military operation in Ukraine, according to military and strategic expert Colonel Adel Abdel Kafi." — Middle East Monitor, March 26, 2022.
"Our competitors clearly see Africa's rich potential. Russia and China both seek to convert soft and hard power investments into political influence, strategic access, and military advantage." — General Stephen Townsend, Commander of United States Africa Command, Senate Armed Services Committee on March 15, 2022

Russia has been significantly deepening its influence on the African continent in recent years, especially when it comes to arms sales -- between 2015 and 2017 Russia entered into 19 cooperation agreements with African countries, largely about Russian weapons sales -- and providing mercenaries. This year's Russian invasion of Ukraine -- and the sanctions that it has engendered -- is likely to incentivize Russia to seek even more engagement on the African continent. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin (front, center) is surrounded by African heads of state at the 2019 Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum in Sochi, Russia on October 24, 2019. (Photo by Sergei Chirikov/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

When the United Nations General Assembly voted on March 2, 2022 on a resolution to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, 17 African countries abstained, eight countries did not vote at all and one country (Eritrea) voted against the resolution. When Russia was suspended from the UN Human Rights Council on April 7, African countries were even less willing to counter Russia: Nine African countries voted against suspending Russia, while 24 countries abstained.

African voting patterns in the UN are just one indication of Russia's growing influence in Africa. While Russia's engagement on the continent is not nearly comparable in volume to that of China, Russia has nevertheless been significantly deepening its influence on the African continent in recent years, especially when it comes to arms sales -- between 2015 and 2017 Russia entered into 19 cooperation agreements with African countries, largely about Russian weapons sales -- and providing mercenaries.

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A Permanent Shortage of Everything
Globalists were wrong. The world isn't flat.

by Daniel Greenfield • June 20, 2022 at 4:00 am

The world isn't flat, it's all too round.... That's why Islam is once again at war with Europe, Russia is invading Ukraine, China is relaunching its empire, and the 'flatland' is experiencing a dimensional shift.
Globalization advocates had just recreated Marxist central planning with a somewhat more flexible global model in which massive corporations bridged global barriers to create the most efficient possible means of moving goods and services around the planet. Borders would come down and cultural exchanges would make us all one ushering in the great union of humanity.
Market consolidation due to government regulations has left a handful of companies sitting atop the market. When one of them, like Abbott for baby formula, has a hiccup, the results are catastrophic; others like Procter & Gamble, which controls about half the menstrual products market, don't have to worry about losing market share to competition. Similar consolidation in food, paper products and supermarkets have replaced a dynamic economy with cartels.
Behind all the brands on the product shelves is a creaky Soviet system in which a handful of massive enterprises interconnected with the state lazily crank out low-quality products from vast supply chains that they no longer control and feel little competitive pressure to perform better. The only thing that is still American about the supermarket experience is the advertising.
Interdependence hasn't even led to the world government that globalists wanted, but global chaos in which impotent western powers try to talk the rest of the world out of fighting to avoid being swamped by refugees, high energy bills and empty shelves in supermarkets.
After selling off American economic sovereignty, globalists proved unable to maintain global stability. Lacking the will to actually stand up to China, Iran or Russia, all they can do is hold more international conferences and build up a useless multinational bureaucracy.
Say what you will about the League of Nations, but it only had 700 employees in Geneva. The UN's 44,000 employees are just the tip of the iceberg in the huge ranks of multinational organizations who all claim to be upholding the international order while running up the tab.

Market consolidation due to government regulations has left a handful of companies sitting atop the US market. When one of them, like Abbott for baby formula, has a hiccup, the results are catastrophic. Similar consolidation in food, paper products and supermarkets have replaced a dynamic economy with cartels. Pictured: A shopper looks at the bare shelves of the baby formula section of a supermarket in Chelsea, Massachusetts on May 20, 2022. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

First it was baby formula, now there's a tampon shortage. Tampon prices are up 10% due to the rising price of oil affecting the cost of plastic and higher cotton prices due to mask manufacturing and the war in Ukraine. A whole lot of fertilizer comes out of Ukraine and Russia. So does neon, which is used to make semiconductor chips. The chip shortage is shutting down car plants.

This is the thoroughly interconnected world celebrated in prose by journalists like Thomas Friedman, who marveled at how Big Data and globalization brought everything together.

"No two countries that both have a McDonald's have ever fought a war against each other," Friedman once claimed. In his greatest paean to globalization, The World Is Flat, he argued that, "No two countries that are both part of a major global supply chain, like Dell's, will ever fight a war against each other as long as they are both part of the same global supply chain."

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BRIAN GEMMELL ON BIBLE PROPHECY AND END TIME RAPTURE EVENTS

Monday, 20 June 2022