Vladimir Putin Embraces Mali Coup Regime, Offering ‘Free’ Wheat and Counter-Terrorism Aid

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Assimi Goita, the interim president of Mali, on Wednesday to talk about building a closer relationship between Bamako and Moscow.

“Further steps to strengthen ties between Russia and Mali in different areas were discussed, including implementation of joint projects in energy, agriculture, and the mining sector,” the Kremlin said of the meeting.

The Kremlin said Putin and Goita also pledged to increase cooperation on counter-terrorism. Russia pledged to continue supporting the Malian junta with “free” shipments of wheat, fertilizer, and fuel.

Putin previously met with Goita at a summit in Russia in July and has spoken with him by phone at least twice since then.

A military coup overthrew Mali’s government in 2020. That junta was, in turn, dislodged by another coup in 2021, bringing former Vice President and former Special Forces Officer Goita to power as the “transitional” president.

The international community, including most Western nations and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), ostracized Mali after its double coups. This created an opportunity for Russia to step in.

Goita shares Putin’s authoritarian ruling style. In July 2023, he claimed sweeping new powers in a dubious “referendum” where 97 percent of the voters allegedly supported giving him the power to rule by fiat and dissolve the legislature at his whim.

Goita’s junta claims it had to seize power because the elected government was doing a poor job of fighting Islamist terrorism. Goita has not done much better. The junta evicted U.N. peacekeepers in June 2023, replacing them with brutal mercenaries from Russia’s notorious Wagner Group. Wagner co-founder Yevgeny Prigozhin made a video to recruit mercenaries for Mali shortly before his death in a suspicious plane crash in August 2023.

Goita scored a symbolic victory that consolidated his power in November 2023 when his forces captured the city of Kidal from Tuareg rebels with the aid of Wagner mercenaries. Tuareg separatists had controlled the city for almost a decade. Junta-controlled media played up the “historic” capture of Kidal, hailing Goita as a conquering hero.

The Russians have also established themselves as allies of two other regional juntas in Burkina Faso and Niger, which joined Mali in quitting ECOWAS to form their own trilateral security pact, the “Alliance of Sahel States,” in late 2023.

In addition to providing its Sahel partners with Wagner Group paramilitary muscle, Russia has also been willing to protect them against international human rights criticism. In September, Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolution against Malian officials accused of human rights violations. Russia also blocked the U.N. from joining sanctions against Mali that ECOWAS brought after the junta said there would be no elections until at least 2026.