Russian Purchase of Niger's Uranium Angers France

 Business Insider Africa published on 10 November 2025 an article titled "France Angered by Niger's Plan to Sell 1,000 Metric Tons of Uranium to Russia" by Olamilekan Okebiorun.  

Niger's military junta is preparing to sell 1,000 metric tons of uranium to Russia, which France sees as a direct challenge to Western influence in the Sahel.  The military regime in Niger seized power in 2023 and ended decades of French involvement in the uranium sector.  

Russia Looking to Benefit from Coup in Mali

 The Foreign Policy Research Institute posted on 16 September 2020 an analysis titled "Why Russia Is a Geopolitical Winner in Mali's Coup" by Samuel Ramani, University of Oxford.

The author suggests that Russia may be the big winner following the recent coup in Mali, threatening France's traditional position and raising questions about China's role there.  

Russia Struggles to Build Influence in South Africa

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published on 16 December 2019 a study titled "Nuclear Enrichment: Russia's Ill-fated Influence Campaign in South Africa" by Andrew S. Weiss, Carnegie Endowment, and Eugene Rumer, Carnegie Endowment and former US intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia.

The authors argue that Russia today offers little in the way of practical assistance for helping South Africa, which has less than one percent of its trade with Russia. Moscow's close relations with former South African President Jacob Zuma, a Soviet-trained intelligence operative, resulted in an ill-fated nuclear power deal and was based on corruption. This relationship has been largely reversed by South Africa's strong civil society and system of checks and balances.