Anna Evstigneeva, the Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, stated that “the current high level of security threats and instability in the Sahel region is a direct result of Western military intervention in Libya.”
Evstigneeva also stated that “France’s attempts to achieve stability in the Sahel region have not borne fruit” and that Moscow “was not surprised to hear resentment in the French representative’s statement, as they have been unable to improve the situation in the region and have lost their new colonialism.”
She added that “France’s continued unilateral actions aimed at regime change in Bamako, continue to harm collective African efforts to achieve stability in the Sahara and Sahel.”
Last month, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya said that the “destabilization of the African Sahel region in general, and Mali in particular, was a result of the ‘reckless Western adventure’ in Libya.”
During his speech at the Security Council on the situation in Mali, the Russian diplomat called on Western countries to “admit their mistakes and abandon the neo-colonial narrative.”
Nebenzya also called for the West to “allow the countries of the region to address their problems jointly, with any partners of their choosing.”
In May, Lavrov attacked the “hypocrisy of the West,” when it intervened militarily in Libya and other regions under American pressure, amid international inaction.
Lavrov has stated that the Russian private paramilitary company, Wagner Group is present in Libya and Mali on a “commercial basis.”