On April 6, three Russian naval ships set sail from the Syrian port of Tartus to stop two days later in Tobruk, eastern Libya. The Mercuriy corvette escorted the other two, the Alexander Otrakovsky and the Ivan Gren, which were carrying a load of armored vehicles, trucks and artillery. In the last 45 days alone, the Russians have carried out five deliveries like this in Libya, says the Libyan Fawasel agency. Il Foglio managed to independently verify two of these operations. The latest delivery is documented by a film showing the column of vehicles just unloaded at the port of Tobruk, the one that General Khalifa Haftar promised Vladimir Putin to build a Russian naval base, the second overlooking the Mediterranean after that of Tartus. The negotiations have been going on for years, but after last August, following the death of the head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the negotiations accelerated. In December, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov met with Haftar in Benghazi. The two discussed the future of the African Corps, Wagner’s Russian mercenaries who are now incorporated into Moscow’s Ministry of Defense. A month later, on January 29, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov flew to Benghazi again, the fourth in a few months. The next day, January 30, a cargo ship called Barbat, which has changed its name seven times in ten years and flies the Cameroonian flag, crossed the Bosphorus. Having set sail from the Russian port of Novorossiysk, the Barbat was headed for Tobruk and, as shown by photos and videos taken of the ship, it was carrying military trucks of the Ural 4320 model. About ten days later, the cargo arrived at its destination and the Libyan television broadcaster February broadcast images of a long convoy with dozens of Russian T72 model tanks and other armored vehicles. The filming was filmed at the “headquarters of the Tariq Ben Zayed brigades commanded by Saddam Haftar”, son of Khalifa. Despite all these trips, the European naval military mission Irini, which should monitor compliance with the arms embargo in Libya and sometimes obtains permission to carry out searches on board suspicious ships, informs Il Foglio that from 2020 to today only “in On 4 occasions these occurred on merchant ships flying the flag of the Russian Federation.” Then there are the air routes between Moscow and Cyrenaica. According to local sources cited by Agenzia Nova, in recent days a cargo plane that took off in Russia made two stopovers in southern Libya, in Fezzan, transporting dozens of soldiers to the bases of Brak al Shati and Jufra.
On April 6, three Russian naval ships set sail from the Syrian port of Tartus to stop two days later in Tobruk, eastern Libya. The Mercuriy corvette escorted the other two, the Alexander Otrakovsky and the Ivan Gren, which were carrying a load of armored vehicles, trucks and artillery. In the last 45 days alone, the Russians have carried out five deliveries like this in Libya, says the Libyan Fawasel agency. Il Foglio managed to independently verify two of these operations. The latest delivery is documented by a film showing the column of vehicles just unloaded at the port of Tobruk, the one that General Khalifa Haftar promised Vladimir Putin to build a Russian naval base, the second overlooking the Mediterranean after that of Tartus. The negotiations have been going on for years, but after last August, following the death of the head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the negotiations accelerated. In December, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov met with Haftar in Benghazi. The two discussed the future of the African Corps, Wagner’s Russian mercenaries who are now incorporated into Moscow’s Ministry of Defense. A month later, on January 29, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov flew to Benghazi again, the fourth in a few months. The next day, January 30, a cargo ship called Barbat, which has changed its name seven times in ten years and flies the Cameroonian flag, crossed the Bosphorus. Having set sail from the Russian port of Novorossiysk, the Barbat was headed for Tobruk and, as shown by photos and videos taken of the ship, it was carrying military trucks of the Ural 4320 model. About ten days later, the cargo arrived at its destination and the Libyan television broadcaster February broadcast images of a long convoy with dozens of Russian T72 model tanks and other armored vehicles. The filming was filmed at the “headquarters of the Tariq Ben Zayed brigades commanded by Saddam Haftar”, son of Khalifa. Despite all these trips, the European naval military mission Irini, which should monitor compliance with the arms embargo in Libya and sometimes obtains permission to carry out searches on board suspicious ships, informs Il Foglio that from 2020 to today only “in On 4 occasions these occurred on merchant ships flying the flag of the Russian Federation.” Then there are the air routes between Moscow and Cyrenaica. According to local sources cited by Agenzia Nova, in recent days a cargo plane that took off in Russia made two stopovers in southern Libya, in Fezzan, transporting dozens of soldiers to the bases of Brak al Shati and Jufra.
The passage of the Barbat ship resumed in the Bosphorus
American attempts to convince Haftar to give up Russian military aid have so far failed. The head of the CIA, William Burns, tried until mid-January, when he arrived unexpectedly in Benghazi to personally ask the Libyan general to turn his back on the Russians, without however offering anything better in return.
Russian T72 tanks arrived at the Tariq Ben Zayed brigade headquarters in February
Washington’s either/or strategy had no effect even a little further south, in Niger. After the coup in July last year, relations between the United States and the coup junta deteriorated. In March, the military cooperation agreement between the two countries was torn up by the Niamey military, a few days after a bilateral meeting held with an American delegation. Instead of bringing the secretary of state to deal with the coup plotters and ask for continued cooperation against Islamic terrorists, Washington sent Molly Phee, an aide to Antony Blinken. A low-level delegation that limited itself to giving an ultimatum: either us or the Russians. Result: Americans retreating – today there remains a contingent of just a thousand men – and Russian instructors arriving. Last week an Ilyushin-76 landed in Niamey with the first soldiers of the Africa Corps, as foreseen by the military cooperation agreement signed last December with Moscow. According to John Lechner, a researcher who follows the vicissitudes of the region, “ironically, Washington’s attempt to counter Russian influence in Niger has made the coup plotters become even more tied to the Kremlin. The Americans do not deal with reality: it is the Africans, not the United States or Russia who decide the fate of the Sahel,” Lechner wrote in the magazine Responsible Statecraft.
The Russian military vehicles unloaded last week by the Russians in Tobruk
Those who did not want to follow the extremist path of the Americans were the Italians and the Germans, the only Westerners who continue to cooperate with the coup plotters. “Considering that an exit of Western nations from Niger would leave room for the expansion of the presence of other actors in the region, even malicious ones, we believe it is of primary importance to consolidate our presence with the bilateral Misin mission,” he said last week in a hearing at the commissions Foreign Affairs and Defense of the Chamber and Senate, the commander of the Joint Forces Operational Command, General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo. The Germans have also decided to continue talking with Niamey, which has been negotiating with Berlin since March to conclude a military cooperation agreement. “It’s up to Niger to decide,” declared Solomonic Oliver Schnakenberg, German ambassador in Niamey. “It’s a sovereign country.”
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