Central African Republic: We are happy to be with Russia

Pravda.Ru special correspondent Daria Aslamova went to Central African Republic, where she held several interviews with Russian military instructors and local officials. You can watch the previous interview at the military base in Berengo here. 

First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Simplice Sarandji. I am an MP, I am also the President of the Parliament of the Central African Republic.

My first question: the CAR is a country where French influence has been traditionally strong. The fact that the CAR has chosen Russia as a strategic partner comes as a surprise to all of us as this is such a remote country. How do you explain this?

First of all, I would like to note that our country is a free and sovereign state. Such a country has the right to choose its friends at it discretion, which is absolutely normal. Woe to that person who prefers to act alone in his destiny. Therefore, our country chose to have a very interesting and exclusive partner, such as the Russian Federation. We are happy to be developing our cooperation in a friendly and fraternal direction. We are planning our future and our present.

Your ambassador to Russia recently spoke about plans to build a Russian military base on the territory of the country. Is it possible?

In order to answer your question, I would like to emphasize that any issues of this level are resolved by our representative of our state, the head of our state, Professor Arcange Touadéra. He is the chief diplomat in our country, and he also heads the Armed Forces in our country. That is why any decision of this level is made directly by the president.

Therefore, if an ambassador suddenly speaks of a possible military base, it only means that he received instructions directly from the head of state. Accordingly, for my part, I can say that our cooperation, whether it be military or civil cooperation plays for the benefit of our state. Therefore, any decision that will be made regarding further cooperation will involve decisions that the president will make.

How do you generally assess the cooperation between Russia and the Central African Republic in military terms, in terms of the military security of the country? I'm talking about Russian military instructors. How do they work here?

As a Central African, I can honestly say that if you watched reports from a few years ago, you would be horrified at what our country was like. I can tell you that 90% of our territory did not belong to the government - it belonged to rebels and terrorists. State security did not exist, in principle. Therefore, with all the support that our Russian colleagues and Russian instructors provide, I can tell you for sure that the state has received necessary knowledge and power in order to get on its feet in order to unite and guarantee security to local citizens in the first place. 

But that's not just my opinion. I can say that I myself am glad, and my fellow deputies are glad that our army is today at the stage of revival.

What does that mean?

It means that our army is able to protect our state.

Your country is considered to be one of the richest in natural resources in Africa. That is, the CAR is a country that has uranium, gold, diamonds, copper - in fact, all the chemical elements of the periodic table. But at the same time, it is considered one of the poorest countries in Africa. Why did this happen?

First of all, I would like to say that our nature spoiled us a lot. We are a little late in development. But in terms of these riches that our country has given us, we are ahead of many countries on the African continent. Accordingly, we are open to such friendly countries as Russia, and we look up to them hoping that these countries will teach us how to properly exploit our resources. How to properly approach and develop them properly. All we need now is awareness at the level of the government, the national assembly, and the people. The people need to see their interest in owning these resources. It is for this purpose that we need cooperation as it will help us manage them. We have a young country, we strive to develop youth. And, of course, we care about women's health.

Our women, in view of the current situation, work very hard and a lot. Therefore, we look forward to such fruitful cooperation with the Russian Federation that will help us to properly approach our resources.

Now we can see amazing processes happening throughout Africa, French-speaking Africa, in former French colonies. We see some kind of awakening, we can see Africa rising, there are revolutionary sentiments. We can say that, most likely, this is a revolutionary process taking place in the French-speaking Africa. There's Niger, Gabon, Mali, there is a situation in Burkina Faso.

What's happening in former French colonies in Africa?

This is a question I ask myself regularly. If you look at Gabon, Niger, Mali, the Central African Republic, if you literally scratch the soil of these countries with your finger, you will find huge riches. But, first of all, you will see how the people of these countries live. There are universities, young people study and understand the role of education, they value the right that the country gives him to study. Every educated person will be able to distinguish between what was done and what was not done, and, of course, they will rebel against it. Therefore, the situation that is developing in the French-speaking countries today is not a situation that is directed against one country. Here it is rather a realisation of what has been happening, as if a person has just opened their eyes. 

Take the young people who are ready to cross the desert in order to go to Europe. Many of them die. Many of them are not ready to live in poverty. Our country is no exception. Therefore, I would call the ongoing process a leap, a leap in pride that will allow us to grow further.

It kind of reminds me of what is happening in Latin America. Remember Che Guevara. Now we have a similar process happening in Africa. How do you look at it?

The processes that took place in Latin America and the processes that are happening now in Africa have nothing in common, because what happened in Latin America, take Che Guevara - this is exclusively a revolution of ideology, this is a political revolution. We are now dealing with the awakening of consciousness. People begin to realise that their lifestyle does not meet the standards.

Every African nation is Che Guevara. I'm talking about the African peoples and the people of my country, the Central African Republic. These people are suffocating and want to breathe in an opportunity to live well. We have done a huge amount of research and studies of our natural resources, and we understand that our people are not satisfied with the standard of living they are now facing. When we talk about why this or that partnership is chosen we need to think about the situation in which people live. We're tired of being the fifth wheel in the wagon that doesn't follow our rules. Therefore, when we say that we choose our friends, we proceed from the fact that we are a free country. Any country that is ready to cooperate with us is a country that can offer us something that we can use as a development model. Therefore, if we can choose a friend like Russia, then we do not see any obstacles.

• I want us to grow.
• I want to be left alone.
• I want our resources not to be exploited.
• I want to stop funding armed groups
• I want peace and prosperity.

And I want us to communicate with the countries that will provide us with a position of mutual benefit and win-win situation. Forcing one's opinions on someone in the modern society is absolutely unacceptable. We are a free country, we are not a victim, we do not need to be insulted and stigmatised to push others to turn away from us. We should not be stigmatized for choosing our friends.

Why do those countries that condemn us today for our cooperation with Russia -  why do they maintain their own relations with Russia?  I repeat once again, we are making our choice, and we want to be left alone and given us the freedom of choice.

The head of PMC Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin and his commanders were killed. PMC Wagner, as far as I understand, played a big role in security issues in the Central African Republic. Will it change anything? How can the situation change in connection with this?

This question should probably be addressed to the Russian government in the first place. The first agreement in this area was signed at the moment when I was serving as prime minister.

I remember the Russian government entering into a contract with the Central African government, and Russian military forces entered the CAR. We didn't know then whether it was Wagner or just Russian forces. We found out later that those were the armed forces that were parallel to the Russian armed forces. Cooperation between countries continues, and I hope that Mr. Putin, as before, I think, will support his decision to accompany the Central African Republic at the stage of building security for the people, at the economic stage, so that Russia could always help us with advice and decisions. We are saddened by the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin as a person, but everything else remains unshakable. The state remains unshakable. Everything that was agreed remains as it was and keeps moving on. I think that our states will continue moving further side by side into a bright and interesting future.

We do not think of the Wagner group as a separate group of citizens. We say that they are Russians who came to Central Africa. You are all Russians for us.