29.03.2024

Russia Sent ‘300 Military Instructors’ to C.Africa

Moscow said Tuesday it had dispatched 300 Russian military instructors to the Central African Republic at the CAR’s request after an alleged attempted coup ahead of upcoming elections.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said Russia had «promptly responded» to a request and sent «an additional 300 instructors to train the military personnel of the national army» under the terms of an existing cooperation agreement.

On Monday the CAR government said that Russia, along with Rwanda, had sent in hundreds of troops after three powerful rebel groups merged and started to advance on the capital Bangui at the weekend.

The advance was halted and in some places pushed back and the situation was «under control,» the UN peacekeeping force in the CAR, known as MINUSCA, said late Sunday.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was «seriously concerned that the events of recent days have led to a sharp degradation of the security situation» in the CAR.

The actions of the three rebel groups had been «well coordinated and fed from the outside» and aimed at «disrupting the electoral process,» it said.

On Monday, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov denied that Moscow had sent troops to CAR, although he noted that Russian military instructors were already there under the existing bilateral deal.

He insisted the CAR’s presidential elections would take place as planned on Dec. 27, despite «destructive forces» trying to «disrupt» them.

The Kremlin has led a diplomatic and financial offensive in the deeply troubled CAR since 2018 in return for concessions to Russian companies to exploit the country’s mineral wealth, especially gold and diamonds.

The strategy has been seen in the context of a Russian bid to expand its influence in Africa, where the former Soviet Union used arms sales and military training to wield clout in the Cold War.

Joint Russia-U.S. Operation Busts S.American Cocaine Smuggling Network

Russia and the United States have cut off an international cocaine smuggling chain and seized over 330 kilograms of the drug, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Tuesday, marking a rare joint law enforcement effort between the two countries.

A multi-stage investigation by the FSB and the U.S. Justice Department disrupted «a transnational criminal community that specialized in smuggling cocaine from South America to Russia and other European states,» the state-run TASS news agency cited the FSB’s press office as saying.

The seized cocaine’s street value is worth about 1 billion rubles ($13.6 million), the FSB added.

Video released by the FSB to Russian media showed plainclothes agents dragging suspects from cars as well as boxes of confiscated cash and drugs.

The first stage of the investigation took place in May, when a drug dealer with about 1 kilogram of cocaine in his possession was arrested during an attempted drug deal in St. Petersburg. In June, FSB officers caught some of the criminal group’s members and one of its main organizers “red-handed” during an attempted large-scale drug sale in Moscow and seized about 34 kg of cocaine.

«At the final stage of the operation, despite the use of increased secrecy measures and various tricks by the drug dealers, a cache was found in the Moscow region in November 2020, where upon examination at least 295 kg of drugs were found,» the FSB said, according to TASS.

The FSB’s Investigative Department has opened criminal cases against members of the cross-border drug group and placed them in pre-trial detention, TASS reported.

The operation was a rare example of cooperation between Russia and the U.S., which share a deep and mutual distrust over a range of issues including election meddling and hacking.

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