Russia Is Making Some Very Odd Deals in the Central African Republic

After largely withdrawing from Africa in the wake of the Soviet collapse, Russia is starting to return to the continent in surprising ways. Since December, Moscow has struck major deals in the Central African Republic (CAR) with the government and rebel leaders, raising questions about its intentions in the troubled African nation.

In December, Russia asked the U.N. Security Council to let it supply weapons to CAR’s new EU-trained army. After some objections by France, Russia secured an exception to the U.N.arms embargo, and began shipping weapons in January. By year’s end, Russia intends to deliver 5,200 rifles, a variety of other light weapons, and some 170 civilian instructors.

In late March, CAR president Faustin-Archange Touadéra appeared in public with a Russian personal guard, a supplement to the Rwandan bodyguards assigned to him by the U.N.peacekeeping mission. At least 40 Russian Special Forces troops — and perhaps mercenaries from the Kremlin-linked Wagner group — are in-country to protect the president, with more reportedly on the way. Presidential spokesperson Albert Yaloke-Mokpem told Jeune Afrique that the Russians “work at all levels and are there to observe and train the presidential guard.”

President Touadéra has a number of incentives to work with Russia rather than France or the United States. Russia’s aid in arming the CAR’s military is a huge boon for the chronically underfunded state. The EU training mission in CAR has…