How Wagner is providing cover for Putin in crisis-hit Niger

News Snapshot:

The spectacle of Russian flags waved by coup-supporters at Sunday's rally in Niamey, Niger, shows just how much Russia's effort to pitch itself as an anti-colonial flag bearer resonates. The reality though is that it is utterly disingenuous. Russia's war in Ukraine is a blatantly imperialist undertaking, however Putin tries to sell it to African leaders who have, by and large, stayed neutral on the invasion. Wagner's activities across many African nations, especially in Mali, Sudan and the Central African Republic, bear all sorts of similarities with the very worst of colonial excesses - mineral extraction, mass atrocities and security...