Russia accuses France of intensifying an “anti-Russian” campaign on the African continent

Today’s latest news about the Ukrainian-Russian war

Dec. 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused the French authorities of intensifying an “anti-Russian” campaign in Africa and of trying to “discredit the friendly aid” Moscow is giving its partners on the continent.

“We believe that the French authorities (…) need to think more often about the consequences of their sometimes irresponsible activities, words and actions,” said the spokeswoman for the Russian diplomatic portfolio, Maria Zajarova, at a press conference.

Diplomatic relations between Paris and Moscow are not going through their best moment due to the war in Ukraine, although it is true that the response of the French authorities to a recent attack with an explosive package in the vicinity of the Russian Embassy in the Central African Republic (CAR ), have not helped either.

That incident seriously injured Dimitri Siti, director of the Casa Rusa cultural center, and caused the founder of the Wagner Group, Yevgeni Prigozhin, to point directly to France as responsible for the explosion, since the package bomb was allegedly accompanied by a letter that he spoke “in the name of all the French”.

From Paris, the French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna, called Prigozhin’s statements “false” and took the opportunity to denounce the “propaganda” spread by the Kremlin and the operations carried out on the African continent through the Wagner Group.

In this context, Zajarova has urged the French authorities to express their words of “sympathy, regret and condemnation” for the attack that occurred in the Central African Republic, taking into account that “the issue of Russia in Africa has been of great interest” for France in the last days.

The Russian Foreign Ministry already summoned the French ambassador in Moscow, Pierre Lévy, on Wednesday, in protest at the statements by Minister Colonna regarding the attack in the Central African Republic.

INVESTIGATION OF THE ATTACK IN RCA

Likewise, Zajarova has recognized that Moscow is waiting for the authorities of the Central African Republic to initiate an investigation into the circumstances of the “crime” and hopes that the perpetrators of the attack will be punished.

“We believe that the Central African authorities have the right to request assistance in the investigation of this terrorist attack from the relevant services of other states that can help clarify the situation,” he added.

“In the Central African Republic, often thanks to the efforts of Western countries, and mainly France, a negative, sometimes hysterical and toxic information atmosphere is created around Russian representatives and specialists who carry out their activities in the country. only at the invitation of the official authorities of the Central African Republic”, has affected.

The African country has been plunged into a serious crisis as a result of the elimination of the 2020 presidential candidacy of former President François Bozizé, who returned to the country at the end of 2019 to once again be a candidate for the Presidency, a position he abandoned in 2014 before the uprising of the Séléka rebels, predominantly Muslims.

The elimination of Bozizé’s candidacy led to the creation of the armed alliance Patriots for Change Coalition (CPC) –currently led by the former president–, which triggered an armed conflict in which the RCA Army would also have support of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group.