During a press conference given on December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin estimated that the change of regime in Syria should not be seen as a “defeat” for Russia, despite the possible loss of the military port. of Tartous and the Hmeimim air base.
“We came to Syria ten years ago to prevent a terrorist enclave from being created there, like in Afghanistan. Overall, we achieved our goal. It is not for nothing that, today, many European countries and the United States wish to establish relations with the new Syrian leaders,” argued the head of the Kremlin. Should we have understood that the former Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, was no longer “useful” to Moscow’s designs?
In any case, in recent months, Moscow has increased contacts with Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the strong man of eastern Libya, where a “government of national stability”, rival to that established in Tripoli, intends to exercise its control. on Cyrenaica and Fezzan, with the support of the Libyan National Army [ANL].
Shortly after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Russia began to transfer “resources from its Syrian base in Tartous to Libya,” said Guido Crosetto, the Italian Minister of Defense, in an interview with the daily newspaper la Repubblica. And, according to Pentagon sources cited by the Wall Street Journal, S400 and S300 air defense systems have been redeployed on Libyan soil.
What is certain is that air activity in eastern Libya is above average, according to the Italian site ItalMilRadar. A priori, and while waiting for the port of Torbruk to possibly take over from that of Tartous, Russia would have access to the bases of Al-Khadim [est]d’Al-Joufra [centre]de Ghardabiya [près de Syrte] and Brak Al-Shati [Fezzan]. And, according to Agenzia Nova, a fifth was recently added to this list: that of Maaten al Sarra, located near the borders with Chad and Sudan.
“The Maaten al Sarra base is set to become a key logistics center for Russian operations in Africa […] particularly towards Mali and Burkina Faso, where Russia has already consolidated its military presence. In addition, it is also strategic for the protection of supply routes to Sudan, a country experiencing serious internal instability,” noted the Italian press agency.
Precisely, with regard to Mali, Russia is in the process of significantly strengthening its military presence there, via the former Wagner group. [ou « Africa Corps »]. Which is not surprising given recent statements by Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs.
“The Russian side expressed its determination to continue providing Bamako with the necessary assistance to resolve acute socio-economic problems, improve the combat effectiveness of the country’s armed forces, train military and law enforcement personnel in the interest of fighting against persistent terrorist threats,” Russian diplomacy said, after a telephone exchange between Mr. Lavrov and his Malian counterpart, Abdoulaye Diop, last August.
-At the time, Russian paramilitaries had just suffered very heavy losses in northern Mali, after falling into ambushes set by fighters from the Strategic Framework for the Defense of the People of Azawad [CSP-DPA] and by the jihadists of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims [GSIM, lié à al-Qaïda].
In October, photographs taken by satellite and examined by the Center for strategic & international studies [CSIS] showed that major work was underway on air base 101 in Bamako, with the construction of “five large buildings” with the “potential capacity to house 400 to 500 soldiers” and several warehouses in order, probably, to ” store and protect valuable military equipment.
In any case, such equipment has just arrived in Bamako, according to images broadcast by Cap Mali + television on January 17. Thus, during a “parade” of more than 30 minutes, we can see T-72B3 tanks, BTR-80/82A armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles [VCI] BMP-3, Kamaz 4385 trucks [récemment admis au service]engineering vehicles, cannons as well as Spartak armored vehicles [dotés d’un canon automatique S-60 de 57 mm et présentés pour la premère fois lors du forum Armée 2023]Tiger and Lens. At least one river boat is part of the lot.
The origin of these vehicles is not clearly established. Some of them are marked “H2200”, suggesting that they were transported by rail to Russia. It is possible that others were transferred to Mali from Syria.
As this equipment is, for the most part, recent, it is likely that it is intended for the paramilitaries of the Africa Corps. In any case, the Malian Armed Forces [FAMa] have not made any announcement about any delivery of new vehicles… And Colonel Assimi Goïta, the head of the junta in power in Bamako, said nothing either during his “address to the nation », January 19.
“In order to consolidate the achievements of 2024 and envisage other successes, the process of equipping the armed and security forces will be perfected in 2025 with the establishment of a military industry. We are actively working on the installation of the arms factory with units for assembling individual and collective weapons, assembling light tactical vehicles, manufacturing ammunition and explosives for civilian use,” he said. -he however assured.
