MOSCOW, February 26. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov has said Western countries could provoke ouster of governments in some African countries by encouraging various armed groups.
"Given the behavior of Washington and the so-called collective West toward sovereign countries, the danger that Western nations will encourage various armed groups with the purpose of toppling incumbent governments is very high," Bogdanov, who is also the presidential envoy for the Middle East and Africa, told TASS in an interview.
Malian scenario
He said that Paris, for example, has long been doing "everything possible to remove the transitional government of Mali that it does not like."
"On May 16, 2022, the Malian government issued a statement about the attempted coup committed by a mid-level military group overnight into May 12 ‘with the support of one of the Western states’ (read France)," Bogdanov said.
The diplomat noted that "various dirty methods and means" are used for anti-Russian propaganda, ranging from unfounded accusations of the armed forces of Mali and Russian instructors of violating international humanitarian law and human rights to violations by spy drones of the airspace of Mali in order to collect information for further transfer of intelligence to armed gangs to destabilize the situation in the country.
CAR in the crosshairs
The diplomat also brought up Western policy in relation to the Central African Republic, where Paris curtails its presence and suspends programs for providing financial and economic assistance to the country as it’s losing its political influence there.
"The French are blocking the import of various types of fuel into the CAR, which negatively affects the socio-economic situation of this country," he said.
According to Bogdanov, there are numerous reports that illegal armed groups operating in the CAR rely, among other things, on organizational and financial support from "former colonial masters." "And recently, in the area of the border with Sudan, there were sightings of Europeans among the militants for the first time, who, according to the CAR, may be Western instructors or mercenaries. We believe that such actions in relation to sovereign states are unacceptable," the deputy minister said.