Africa Becomes a Focal Point in Russia's Global Strategy

When Wagner mercenary force founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a fiery plane crash in August, exactly two months after leading a rebellion that challenged President Vladimir Putin’s 24-year grip on power, it cast a thick cloud over the future of Russia’s footprint in Africa. Ever since the West began isolating Russia following Moscow’s takeover of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014, Putin had attempted to rekindle Soviet-era ties with nations in the Global South, especially in Africa, using Prigozhin’s paramilitary…