A senior Russian official on June 19 inadvertently confirmed the staggering troop losses incurred by Moscow's forces during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In an interview with CNN, Russian Ambassador to the U.K. Andrey Kelin was asked about Moscow's maximalist intentions in Ukraine and its ability to recruit enough
There it is. Everyone’s guilty once you’ve flung shrapnel through their chest.
But you still can’t imagine why the French-aligned government got ousted in a coup on these terms.
What were the residents of Moura guilty of? Answer.
Jihadis came in, enforced their perverse interpretation of Islam, Sharia courts, dress codes, the lot. Then Wagner+Mali army came, first stomped the Jihadis, then Wagner moved on to rape the locals. Mali army looked on for a while, then stepped in and said “Ok Russians, that’s enough, stop it”, and it stopped.
That doesn’t happen with French forces, you don’t have to tell French forces to stop torturing and raping the local civilians, and they also won’t tell you that it’s a valuable strategy of war. And that’s why there’s going to be another putsch because as fucked-up as the Mali military is they’re not inherently cruel. They just have no idea of how to achieve stability, and were dissatisfied by the progress of the French – but seeing the Russians, yep, the French are very much preferable. Or ask Nigeria for help instead. China if you can convince them, that’d certainly be interesting. Anyone, but not Russia.
Because you know what? You don’t win the hearts and minds of the people if your reputation is even worse than that of the Jihadis. Say what you want about Al Qaeda but they’re not as bad as ISIS or Wagner, they do have a sense of decency. A very twisted one, but it exists.