So far, little has stood in the way of Russia’s unremitting pursuit of influence across Africa. According to General Townsend, those activities are destabilizing and, extensive arms sales notwithstanding, do little to counter the epidemic of insurgency and terrorism endemic to places like the Sahel ( Africom.mil, January 30, 2020). In his testimony to Congress, AFRICOM head General Stephen Townsend, made clear that his Command’s threat assessments see Russia (and China) continuing to seize all available opportunities to expand its influence in Africa. Despite these expert assertions, however, this is assuredly not how US African Command (AFRICOM) evaluates the situation. Purportedly, Russia lacks the resources with which to compete in Africa against the United States and China, acts there in a ham-handed and overly corrupt manner, deals only with backward authoritarian states, has nothing to sell but arms, and is primarily motivated by economic rather than strategic objectives (, June 2019, April 2019, October 16, 2019). According to numerous analyses published by think tanks and journals in the United States and Europe, Russia lost its African adventure before it even started.
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