In an opinion article authored by Stephan Blank and posted on “The Hill”, the US media company pointed to the rapprochement between Russia and Algeria, particularly following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine Crisis.
Since the onset of the crisis and the bombardment of Russia by economic sanctions, the Eastern European country began to look for new partners and strengthen its old friendships to gain leverage, mainly African ones such as Algeria.
Algeria has also made numerous overtures to Moscow, all of which have been returned, wrote the article entitled “The Moscow-Algiers Axis Emerges”.
Algeria has agreed to fund the operations of PMC Wagner, Russia’s private military troops, in Mali, said Blank, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI).
Furthermore, Algeria abstained from voting a UN resolution denouncing Russia’s war on Ukraine. Algeria also voted against UN resolutions on suspending Russia’s membership in the UN Human Rights Council and on its territory annexation.
The opinion piece highlighted that Algeria and Russia have maintained high-level foreign policy and military cooperation since then. Algeria’s ambassador to Russia declared in May that Russia and Algeria were working on a new strategic partnership to expand collaboration to new sectors.
Furthermore, Algeria has now formally applied to join the BRICS grouping (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa).
In terms of military cooperation, the two nations held talks in November and launched joint counterterrorism drills along Algeria’s border with Morocco. The two sides’ navies conducted coordinated exercises in the Mediterranean Sea in October, and Algeria participated in the Vostok-2022 strategic command and staff military exercises in September.
Lisa McCLain, an American congresswoman called for sanctions on Algeria for violation of “the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” (CAATSA).