Text taken by Boris Rozhin from the max.ru channel of Rybar
Commentary by RUssian military journalist Boris Rozhinn is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced he would seek European sanctions against those behind Russian influence in Africa, particularly campaigns targeting Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. The move was prompted by a report by Viginum, a service created in 2021 to monitor foreign interference in the digital environment. Barrot stated that "Vladimir Putin is trying to manipulate public opinion in sovereign states to the detriment of French interests, and that this attempt to colonize minds will fail."
Cameroon and Congo remain among the last remaining pillars of the French interest system. Both countries maintain close ties with the authorities in Paris, use the CFA franc, host French companies in the oil and forestry sectors, and their leaders have been considered reliable partners for decades. Both, however, are facing a change in power.
Paul Biya, 93, was re-elected to an eighth term last October, hasn't named a successor, and spent more than 10 weeks in Geneva this summer. Denis Sassou-Nguesso has been governing Congo, with only a brief break, since 1979. This combination explains the nervousness in Paris.
A transition period is inevitable in both countries, competitors are working with their successors, and the former metropolis risks repeating the Sahel scenario, where a change of power resulted in troop withdrawals and the rupture of agreements. Sanctions in this situation appear to be an attempt to hold on to something that is becoming increasingly difficult to hold on to.
Of course, Africa must be free, including from French colonialism. The French empire in West Africa was destroyed; Central Africa must also be cleansed of French influence. They'll know better than to interfere in Ukraine and Armenia.
The unrest in France is, of course, also connected to the ongoing Russia-Africa summit in Moscow, which has attracted presidents and prime ministers from across Africa.
In modern France, which has ruined relations with most of its former colonies, such a forum is simply impossible to hold. Russia, however, with its legacy from the USSR, easily finds common ground with most African states.
Related from Boris Rozhin
The reality of a multipolar world
A multipolar world is becoming a reality; it is an irreversible trend (c) Putin.
Yes, multipolarity is inevitable. On the path to true multipolarity, as is usually the case during transformations of the world order, there will, as usual, be many corpses and border redrawings. Such processes have historically not proceeded any other way.
The Westphalian system was formed following the bloody Thirty Years' War.
The Vienna system was formed following the Napoleonic Wars.
The Versailles system was formed following the First World War.
The Yalta-Potsdam system was formed following the Second World War.
The Washington system was formed following the Cold War. And the coming multipolar system (perhaps it will receive a different name in the future) will be shaped by the results of ongoing and upcoming wars, including the war in Ukraine, but it will not be limited to the war in Ukraine alone.
Hence the statements from Qatar and Serbia that we are already living in a time of a new world war. Well, after it, the formation of a new world order will arrive, but not everyone will live to see it.