Burkina Faso - Russia relations
Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) is a self-governing autonomy in the French Community, and later an independent state in West Africa. Diplomatic relations between USSR the and Upper Volta were first established on February 18, 1967, during the first years of the command of Colonel General Sangue Lamizana in Walt Balada.
Burkinabe soldiers went on national television 24 January 2022, announcing they had deposed President Roch Kabore due to "the continuous deterioration of the security situation which threatens the very foundations of our nation." A day later, Alexander Ivanov, the official representative of Russian military trainers in the Central African Republic, issued a statement offering training to the Burkinabe military. The CAR had been employing mercenaries with Russia's Wagner Group to help with security since 2017.
Russia has established a strong military presence in the Central African Republic (CAR) over the past four years, using actors like the military company Wagner, which is close to President Vladimir Putin. Wagner has become the deniable vanguard of a major Russian push into Africa. The US and the European Union have slapped sanctions on Wagner for a suspected range of human rights abuses, not only in the CAR but in Libya, Syria, Sudan and Ukraine. In Mali, a Russian force of some 450 troops, mainly Wagner operatives, is reportedly starting to fill a vacuum created by the partial withdrawal of France’s 5,100-strong Barkhane force from the Sahel region.
The Daily Beast first reported the allegations that Wagner was tied to the coup in Burkina Faso earlier this week, citing sources close to the deposed president as saying his final acts in office were to oppose requests by the Burkinabe military to hire Wagner. "The president quickly rejected the idea," one official told The Daily Beast. "Kabore didn't want to run into any problems with the West for aligning with Russia."
Russia expressed concern over the recent developments in Burkina Faso, calling for the country’s president to be released as soon as possible, Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexey Zaitsev said at a briefing on 27 January 2022. "We express concern over the [recent] events in Burkina Faso, which is friendly to us. We proceed from a principled stand relating to the unacceptability of unconstitutional actions to change power, we call for the immediate release of President Roch Kabore, as well as for civilian rule to be restored in the country without delay," the diplomat said.
As in Mali, though, where demonstrators have repeatedly voiced support for Russian assistance, there seemed to be at least some support among Burkinabes for turning to Moscow. Speakers at a rally of about 1,000 people earlier this week in Ouagadougou, the capital, repeatedly called for Russian military intervention.
"The Department of Defense is aware of the allegations that the Russian-backed Wagner Group may have been a force behind the military takeover in Burkina Faso," Cindi King, a Defense Department spokesperson, told VOA 27 January 2022. But the Pentagon stopped short of saying whether the allegations are true. "We cannot speak to these reports or any potential factors that led to this event," King said of ths latest coup.
In the 1960s, the Soviet Union was sometimes referred to as the "Upper Volta with Missiles," referring to the Soviet Union's incompatibility of defense with an underdeveloped civilian economy. Sonorous sticky names sometimes appear, tenacious due to their figurativeness. They are not related to the worldview features of individual countries or nations. That is, the world perceives them unambiguously. German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt once described the Soviet Union as “Upper Volta with missiles”. It is wrongly attributed to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Even the President of the Russian Federation used this expression in his interviews. The image has become popular in Russian journalism and is also applied to post-reform Russia in the 1990s.
The Republic of Upper Volta became Burkina Faso on 4 August 1984, the first anniversary of the coup that brought the leftist military government to power. This coup, : two decades after most of the continent’s leftist uprisings, was the second in a year. On 4 August 1983 the moderate pro-Western government under Maj Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo was overthrown by his former Prime Minister, Captain Thomas Sankara.
While a radical left-wing revolutionary who studied Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, Sankara - who tried to implement what he called the "democratic and popular revolution" - was not aligned with the Soviet Union. But the influence of Soviet official culture loomed large over the period. In Ouagadougou as in Moscow, revolutionary orchestras played to the official propaganda of the government. The canonical revolutionary iconography of the socialist fist, photomontages showing Sankara and his people marching side-by-side and mass demonstrations were also representative of Burkinabe art during in the 1980s.
Relations with strongly pro-Soviet countries (such as Cuba ) were close, and Sankara, despite many differences, maintained friendly relations with the Soviet Union - the Patriotic Union for Development, closely with the Soviet Union. It was initially allied with Sankara, but its members were ousted from the government in 1984. [7]Sankara - who often denounced foreign aid as imperialist - criticized the Soviet Union's foreign aid policies in an editorial in the newspaper "Proletarian Spirit". Sankara also condemned the Soviet-Afghan war. Despite these differences, the Soviet Union cooperated somewhat with Burkina Faso - primarily military - in the form of training and economic equipment.
Sankara moved closer to the Soviet Union and Libya, he tried to maintain his essential economic links with the West. Aid donations from Western sources far outweighed any assistance received from the more radical states; however, Sankara developed a closer relationship with radical anti-Western states as he further consolidates his power. Libya had already supplied some military equipment to Burkina and some of the Burkinan graduates of the military academy went to Cuba for officer training. Agreements providing for Cuban assistance in health, agriculture, and security had been announced. Close relations with Algeria were developed. Algeria has provided a large cash subsidy and agreed to supply petroleum at low cost. In addition to economic assistance Algeria has provided military materiel and technicians and civilian technicians. Algeria's increasingly important role probably resulted from its attempts to counter Libyan influence, and it reflects a more cautious attitude by the Sankara government.
Prophet, martyr, model: Thomas Sankara, the “African Che Guevara” was betrayed and assassinated just four years into his rule. He was betrayed by Blaise Compaore´, cooperating with the French state. In assassination he became a mythic figure.
Officials in neither the local Chamber of Commerce nor the National Office of External Trade are aware of any presence of Russian trade officials. Burkina Faso and Russia signed several agreements in the late 1960s. One of these concerned trade and economic and technical cooperation, but were never implemented. Another agreement included a Cultural and Scientific Agreement, but Russia has long since closed its cultural center and stopped all activities related to the agreement. Under a transportation agreement, Aeroflot flew to Burkina Faso, but also stopped servicing Ouagadougou several years ago.
Many Russians currently residing in Burkina Faso are the spouses of Burkinabe students who completed their studies in Russia. Since the closure of the Russian Cultural Center in Ouagadougou, and the Embassy of Burkina Faso in Moscow, the number of officials has also dropped. The Russian Embassy responsible for Burkina Faso is located in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.
In the heart of Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, a poster advertising free Russian language courses has been attached to the large, iconic model of a globe on a road intersection which locals refer to as the “United Nations roundabout”.
In the 1980s, the Soviet Union (USSR) had a strong presence in Africa through diplomatic representation and cultural centres, including in Burkina Faso. Three decades since Russia left large parts of Africa amid the breakup of the Soviet Union, however, signs of its return are visible in Burkina Faso, where the capital’s walls are adorned with pro-Russian graffiti, and Russian flags fly in the streets.
“Something has changed, and it is eye-catching. You can feel it immediately, walking the streets and the roundabouts,” said a resident who asked to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions from the government, which has been controlled by the military since a coup in January 2022. In the aftermath of that coup, which overthrew the elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, Russian flags began to appear during anti-French protests.
A football tournament, a graffiti festival, a photo exhibition, film screenings, a public conference, and a daily radio show called “Russian Time”, during which hosts speak in a mixture of French and Russian, are some of the events that take place in Ouagadougou every day, as local frustration for former coloniser France has been exploited by Russia to secure influence in the country.
Organisations such as the African Initiative – which describes itself as “an association of Burkinabè and Russians whose aim is to strengthen friendship and mutual understanding, peace and harmony between the peoples of Burkina Faso and Russia” – and Russia’s cultural centre, The Russian House, are working to promote Russia’s image in the country.
This charm offensive began in early 2022 and has gained ground significantly since a grand Russia-Africa summit was held in Saint Petersburg at the end of July 2023. During that summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to send aid to Burkina Faso and duly followed up on January 26 this year with an official donation of 25,000 tonnes of wheat as part of that promise.
Dissatisfaction with French influence has grown on two fronts. One of these is cultural. One researcher who did not wish to be named explained that many people in Burkina Faso do not identify with what they see as the West European country’s progressive policies, such as same-sex marriage, and see less permissive Russian attitudes as more in line with their own.
“Russia is popular in Burkina Faso today because people are fed up with French politics,” explained a Burkinabe university professor and researcher who also requested anonymity. “The Russians sensed that France poorly negotiated its turn with Africa. It has arrived in a country in the throes of a divorce with France,” the researcher added. “In the case of Burkina Faso, Russia is making significant diplomatic gains by repositioning itself in areas that have traditionally been Western strongholds. And the best part is, it can achieve this at a lower cost,” said Newton Ahmed Barry, a Burkinabe journalist currently in exile in France.
Like Mali and Niger – two neighbouring countries led by military governments – Burkina Faso’s primary complaint against the former coloniser, however, is its inability to curb threats from armed groups in the Sahel region since 2013.
France had been providing military support to Sahel countries in this fight, with troops deployed in Mali since 2013, in Niger since 2014, and special forces that have been based in Ouagadougou since 2009. Despite this, armed groups have remained powerful, and protests filled with Russian flags and images of Vladimir Putin took place in Ouagadougou in January 2023 to demand the departure of the French military and its ambassador.
Russia has tried to step into the void. Under the leadership of Captain Ibrahim Traore, who took power in a second coup in September 2022, Burkina Faso has strengthened its military cooperation with Russia, seeking support from Moscow in its fight against armed groups. “It is an official and assumed option to make Russia the partner, replacing all other partners, namely, Westerners and mainly France,” Barry said. He added that the move is not a “diversification of partnerships”, but rather a clear choice to rely on Russia to equip the army and protect the regime – similar to Russia’s involvement in Syria, the Central African Republic and Mali.
In November 2023, the first group of Russian soldiers landed in the capital city of Burkina Faso, followed months later by another group of about 100 Russian military advisers. Since then, the signs of a shift from French to Russian influence have become increasingly apparent. In Ouagadougou, large French-owned companies like the telecom giant Orange or the brewer Brakina are still present. But, apart from these businesses, significant changes are happening politically, diplomatically and, lately, increasingly culturally.
These “influence initiatives” recall the ones in the Central African Republic (CAR), where Russia, through the Wagner mercenary groupexp, anded its influence in the country in 2018 and, from there, onto other countries in the region, such as Mali. Observers refer to the CAR as a “laboratory” for expanding Russian influence in sub-Saharan Africa through Wagner. While Wagner has no current official presence in Burkina Faso, they say this process is being repeated there, too.
“Burkina is becoming the laboratory of the post-Prigozhin Russian presence, where the dominant actor is the Russian state,” Maxime Audinet, a French researcher and expert in Russian information influence, said. He was referring to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Wagner who was killed in a plane crash north of Moscow in August 2023, two months after openly criticising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and staging a rebellion.
On 24 January 2024, Russia’s Africa Corps published the first images of a deployment to Burkina Faso on its Telegram channel. “A Russian contingent of 100 people will ensure the safety of the country’s leader, Ibrahim Traoré, and the Burkinabe people from terrorist attacks,” read a statement posted with the images. “In the near future, units will be replenished with another 200 military personnel from Russia.”
On 24 February 2024, four large flags, including Russia’s, were displayed in front of the stands at the Sports Complex of August 4 Stadium where a martial arts tournament was taking place. Competitors from Russia, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger competed in a combat sport almost unknown to the public – sambo, a martial art originally from the Soviet Union and similar to mixed martial arts (MMA). The tournament, dedicated to Vladimir Putin, was organised by the Sambo Sports Association and African Initiative.
“The fact that it is the sambo is not trivial,” said Audinet. “This martial art was developed during the Soviet Union and was popular among the Soviet military and intelligence service members. It’s a hyper-Soviet sport, and it’s mind-blowing to see it is being promoted in Ouagadougou.”
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