In Africa, Russia is playing the West like a fiddle
Putin is the proverbial small man who casts a large shadow
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I: A small man casting a big shadow
Over the last four years it has seemed like the biggest geopolitical investment Russian president Vladimir Putin could make in Africa was to buy a cheap flag making business. More than Russia’s actual military and economic footprint in African states, images of a few people waving Russian flags during protests in Bamako, Bangui, Conakry, Niamey, or Ouagadougou have been enough to elicit all manner of alarmist reactions among a significant section of Western journalists, security analysts, and policymakers.
Simply put, there is…