On August 23, the billionaire Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a crash of his private jet under unexplained circumstances. The crash also killed a significant section of the senior leadership of the Wagner Group, the Russian private military contractor which Prigozhin headed, including its military commander, Dmitry Utkin.
On the 10th of April 2022, the former president of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum posted on Twitter, that “about 30 senior state officials are guilty of embezzlement or misappropriation of public funds. One of them is Niger’s communications minister who had been detained in a high-profile embezzlement case dating from when he ran a state corporation that manages Niger’s mining sector. The 2 social activists that raised the corruption alarm, Abdoulaye Seydou and Adamou Idrissa, were later arrested and transferred to the high security prison according to their coalition.
Meanwhile, French Energy giant Orano announced that it was shutting down its second largest mine in Niger after 50 years of exploitation. Their reason was the uranium deposits at the sites have been depleted.
So in Niger, you have a country with its natural resources being depleted while senior officials in government are notorious and robbing the country. But there is more. According to a publication by Reuters, An audit by the Nigerien Budgetary Transparency Agency, reported a lack of documents to back several government spending and justify the cost of infrastructure projects. The report also noted fake public tenders, and the “granting of undue advantages to certain companies. However the former president Mohamed Bazoum maintained a clean posture that endeared him to the US and ECOWAS leaders.
The former president may not be the problem, but clearly his government was riddled with corruption.
In the morning July 26 2023, the Niger presidential palace and adjacent ministries were blocked off by military vehicles and palace staff were prevented from accessing their offices. The President Mohammed Bazoum had just been removed from office. Some civilian supporters of Bazoum tried to approach the palace, but were dispersed by the Presidential Guard with gunfire, leaving one injured. Elsewhere in Niamey, the situation was described as calm.
Later In the evening, Air Force Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane went on state television to confirm that Bazoum had been removed from power and announced the formation of a National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland.
He also announced the suspension of all activities by political parties in the country until further notice.
Alarmed by the recurrence of military coup in the region, ECOWAS leaders swiftly responded and gave Niger’s coup leaders a one-week deadline to hand power back to Bazoum or face international sanctions and the region’s military intervention. However the defence minister of Neighbouring Nigeria, maintained the need for diplomacy. Present at the meeting to echo the fears of ECOWAS leaders that are grappling with similar corruption in their governments was Ghana defence minister.
MINSK, 25 August (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko visited Belarusian State University on 25 August. After a lengthy conference about the future of the country’s leading higher education institution the head of state met with reporters and answered key questions people had been dying to ask after the tragic accident that happened to the business jet of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the private military company (PMC) Wagner. BelTA summarized statements made by the president on the occasion.
The Strategic Culture Foundation’s online journal was this week hit by a massive cyberattack. The assault resulted in the forum being shut down on its regular internet site. Readers who normally access the journal were informed that the site was no longer available.
“The Ukrainian Army is not winning. In fact,” argued retired U.S. Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, “it’s losing badly. Ukraine is being destroyed. Its population is being slaughtered in lopsided battles with a technologically superior enemy or scattered by the millions to the rest of the globe as refugees. Ukraine is running out of soldiers.”
“As that happens, the question will inevitably arise who’s gonna replace them? If the Ukrainians can’t beat Putin, who will? The answer, of course, will be us. American troops will fight the Russian army in Eastern Europe. That’s most likely. And the assumption is we’ll win. But will we win?” the former primetime host wondered before bringing in Macgregor.
The colonel reported that at least 40,000 Ukrainian men had been killed in just the last month bringing the total estimate to around 400,000 since Russia had invaded in Feb. 2022. “We don’t even know how many people have been wounded, but we know probably upwards of 40- to 50,000 soldiers are amputees.”
“We know the hospitals are full,” he added before noting that many “Ukrainian units at the platoon and company level,” measuring from 50 to 200 men at a time, have been surrendering to the Russians for the sake of the wounded “because they can’t fight anymore.”
“All of this happens in a way that is just not reported in the West. And in the meantime, rather than admit that this is a terrible tragedy that should be ended, on humanitarian grounds if no other, that the killing should stop — as President Trump said ‘Stop the killing,’ we’re gonna continue,” lamented Macgregor. “And this puts the Russians in the unhappy position of marching further west.”
It was later suggested that the Russians had not been initially prepared for the conflict, but had since amassed around 750,000 troops in and around their neighboring nation and could grow to a force as large as 1.2 million over the next year.
Meanwhile, Macgregor slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “and the radicals around him” who’ve “basically committed to fighting this war to the last Ukrainian. And of course, I’m sure that Mr. Zelenskyy and friends are anxious at some point to retire to their estates in Florida, or Venice or Cyprus to collect on the billions that they’ve managed to steal or siphon from all the aid that we’ve provided. Remember, Ukraine is probably one of the most corrupt places in the world.”
Good interview except when Tucker brings up Sarah Ashton-Cirillo. You don’t have to agree with her (I don’t) but Tucker didn’t need to feed the flames of the culture war. At least, Macgregor didn’t take the bait.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on July 21: “If I were Mr. Prigozhin, I would remain very concerned. NATO has an open-door policy; Russia has an open-windows policy, and he needs to be very focused on that.”
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
You must be logged in to post a comment.