Arabic → English transcript

Say welcome to my guest Dr. Roland Bijamov, why are there Russian

forces in Mali?

And why does this Russian force refuse to withdraw from Mali? Go ahead, sir.

Thank you for having me, Dr. Moataz. My regards to Dr. Ahmed and to our viewers

and to the entire channel team, each and every one. Now, regarding Azawad,

I believe the Russians do not have a problem with the Azawadis,

but first and foremost

it is" Jamaat Nusrat al- Islam wal- Muslimin,"

which is the al- Nusra Front, that

is threatening to besiege Bamako and is in fact threatening this capital.

Whereas the Azawadis are primarily a separatist movement and do not

aspire to obtain

and reach the southern regions. Moreover,

the Azawadis had a project

for self- rule, but unfortunately this project was not resolved and this Azawadi

aspiration was not fulfilled within a united Malian state.

As for the Russian presence there, of course Russia is there

because it supports the central government in Mali as well as

in the Sahel countries,

within the framework of its doctrine of confronting

Neocolonialism. And by the way, this is nothing new

Regarding Mali and other African countries, Russia in the Soviet Union

days was with these

countries, and today there is

in the contemporary era there was

I mean Wagner, then it turned into

the African Corps. But I tell you, I personally was there and saw

forty years ago the Malian officers who were training

with us in the Soviet Union. So there is the weight

that Russia inherited from the Soviet Union. And this policy

ultimately can be read within the framework of a big game

in this region in Africa, behind it are political interests, economic interests

and others. But regarding Mali, of course the first priority is supporting

the central government, the current government. And of course we have

different scenarios for how the situation in this country may develop.

Some say that

things will proceed along the lines of the Syria scenario, others believe

that there is a chaos scenario. Personally, I do not rule it out

The de facto secession of the North,

and I also do not rule out the scenario

of the central government maintaining

control over the areas in the south and in the center of the country,

and that this state does not fall. And now, in such chaos, we can only

talk about the scenarios and

what paths this situation could

develop along in Mali. In any case, for Russia, Mali is a key

country in Africa, it is essentially a testing ground for

Russian geopolitical ambitions, and

the Russians cannot afford to lose Mali, because this structure that has taken

shape there, if Mali falls, then afterward,

according to the domino principle, Burkina Faso, Niger,

and other countries will fall. And that is why it means that

today there was a counter airstrike by the Confederation of the Sahel states.

And the situation, of course, is

dangerous, complex, and difficult, but I think that with regard

to Azawad, I

would like to return to this idea, there are some points that indicate that

Russia can find a common language with Azawad. First, because of the background

Marxism for the movement, and second, because Russia

without a doubt, if it wanted to take part to some extent in the

engineering of geopolitics, of course it would advise

the central government in the country

to accept the idea of self- rule and to show flexibility and maneuvering.

And on the other hand, there is the issue of time. First, among the

big cities,

only Kidal has been lost, while

the other cities, and Bamako, are so far still held by the government.

Moreover, there are people in Bamako, people in major cities,

and people in the south, most of them are the social base of the central government.

So there are different paths and different scenarios. Thank you for this

presentation, I actually wanted you to explain to us how Russia sees this issue.

I will go to Dr. Ahmed Al- Shahat,

This Azawad group is demanding independence,

it actually declared independence in 2012,

but no one has recognized it at all.