Russian Flag in Hands of African Anti-Colonialists Has 'Spooked' West

The sight of the Russian flag at demonstrations in support of Niger's military leadership has scared Western nations. Africa expert and political analyst Koffi Kouakou, a senior research fellow at the Center for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg, said Russia has a long history of aiding African struggles against colonialism.

Nigeriens waving the Russian flag has French, US, and other Western leaders "spooked," an academic says.

The military leadership that deposed Mohamed Bazoum as president has defied an ultimatum from former colonial power France and regional bloc ECOWAS to return him to power.

In turn, the new government has ordered France and the US to vacate their military bases in the West African country and has halted sales of uranium ore to France, where it accounts for one-third of electricity generation.

Political Analyst Koffi Kouakou told Sputnik that it was "fascinating" to see the "paradox" of Western leaders blaming Russia for the military takeover in Niger when their own armed forces trained the officers responsible for similar events in neighboring countries.

"The Russian flag has been just appearing almost everywhere now. It's got symbolism to it, but it's also got practicality to it," he said.

"One of the practicalities is it seems those who are raising the flags, at least across the Sahel, are now saying to themselves: 'my goodness, we need somebody else to help us, we are so weak, we're not strong enough and we can't go back to the whole Stockholm Syndrome, were we are continuously praising those who are oppressing us,'" Koakou explained.

To Africans, Russia represents cooperation, economic development, and an alliance against imperialism, the academic stressed. By contrast, the West is painting Russia as a malevolent force on the continent.

"They want Russia to help them," Kouakou said. "The suspicion of the US-led Western world is to say 'Russia is behind it.' But people are just waking up in Niger, in Mali and Burkina Faso, in the Central African Republic, and I think the flag now has become a symbol that it's helping them to rally around the idea of freedom."

"The old traditional British English word for flag was 'standard,' which means something that stands for something, something that's really flying out."

"The West is just sort of spooked by this awakening from Africans, and they're still trying to figure out 'why Russia,' when we've been there with them for a long time, but they're not questioning themselves and the kind of thing that they've done," Kouakou stressed.

The visit to Niger this week by US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland — the architect of the 2014 Euromaidan coup in Ukraine — has failed to intimidate the country's new rulers into restoring Bazoum to the presidency or lifting their embargo on uranium supplies to France.

"If you take a serious assessment of Western legacy, especially France and the UK and Europeans and now the United States... if you take a look at the assessment of their legacy of colonialism, 'the relationship,' it's just not been positive at all," Kouakou said.

The academic said the series of military takeovers in France's former colonies in West Africa was not unsurprising — or unpopular.

"There's a combination between a rising movement of discontented civil servants, civilians and population saying: 'we have just had enough, we really don't want you here anymore, we can deal with our own issues,'" Kouakou noted. "And the military is probably one of the rallying points of force, of power, that the populace are now saying: 'We're going to use you to really help us get rid of most of these colonialists.'"

"When we hear about the United States in Niger or in the Sahel, it's about building military bases. When was the last time you heard that the US is building a serious infrastructure, railroad, manufacturing to build different plants and helping people do serious commerce?"

For more in-depth analysis of the top news stories, tune in to our Sputnik Radio show Fault Lines.