CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC & THE RUSSIAN CONNECTION

Written by Michael Thervil

Photo by Artyom Geodakyan/TASS

Yesterday Central African Republic President Faustin Archange Touadera took a flight to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the geopolitical relations between the two countries. During the course of President Faustin Touadera visit with President Putin, the two leaders will discuss in detail economics, trade, military interest, and humanitarian efforts. This meeting is significant because Russia played a pivotal role in getting the Central African Republic’s trade embargo on their diamonds lifted while ensuring the Central African Republic operates within the framework of what is known as the “Kimberley Process”.

According to The Kimberly Process’s website:

“The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) is the mechanism the KP uses to prevent the trade of conflict diamonds.”

But in truth, most of the world doesn’t really care where or how they get their diamonds – just as long as they get them. This is especially true when it comes to industries that rely on diamonds in their manufacturing process. In the case of Russia, even though they are a major exporter of diamonds, the EU (European Union) enacted sanctions on Russia's premier diamond mining and manufacturer Alrosa. It’s reasonable to believe that Alrosa will somehow be operating in the Central African Republic in the near future. In an article entitled: “After 12 Rounds of Sanctions On Russia – Russia Expected To Prevail”, we highlighted how important diamonds are to industries worldwide.

We stated:

“The uses of diamonds are vast as they are used for industrial grinding, sawing, glass cutting, machine bearings, polishing, cutting, and of course drilling and drill bits.”

“This means everything from lasers, dentistry tools, vacuum chambers, high end speakers, computers, x-ray machines, can/will be affected by the recent round of sanctions introduced by the EU and enforced by the Collective West. The reason for the heavy industrial use of diamonds lies in its hardness. With a hardness of “10” on the Mohs Hardness Scale, the use of diamonds in the industrial sector is almost limitless.”

With Russia playing a leading role in getting the diamond trade embargo lifted for the Central African Republic, it should be expected that the country should now be able to reap the economic benefits of being able to reengage in international trade by the exportation of their diamonds. Even more than that, as of last year, the United Nations lifted their weapons embargo on the Central African Republic. So, with that the case, the question can now be asked:

“Is the Central African Republic going to take advantage of this by entering the weapons manufacturing industry?”.

Currently there's no concrete answer to that question. But the one thing that is to be expected is for Russia to support the Central African Republic in terms of combating terrorism and other rebel groups. Russia's expansion into Africa is seen as a positive sign by most African countries as Africa has been largely ignored and/or exploited by the Collective West for decades.