Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the topic of Russian private security companies in Mali "made out of thin air".
"If anyone thinks that promotion of this "sucked out of thin air" topic harms Russia's image, I do not think so. I believe that promotion of this topic harms, even not harms, but confirms the image and reputation of those who do it. And the reputation is formed by a sense of their own superiority and permissiveness, when someone who calls themselves established, mature democracies, is allowed everything in any region of the world, and they consider everyone else as second-rate partners. And they think they have the right to lecture everyone else. This is wrong. This is far from democracy," Lavrov said following talks with Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop of Mali.
He noted that the market of services, provided by private military companies, "was created a long time ago and developed by the Western countries".
"Among the leaders of the PMC market is the United States, of course, there are tens of thousands of people in different parts of the world, the UK, as well as the French Republic, which has about a dozen private military companies, providing a variety of services in different parts of the world," added the minister.
The Russian authorities have nothing to do with the activities of private military companies, but if countries enter into contracts with them, there is nothing illegal about it, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"As for the nervousness that French and some other representatives have been showing for months about reports that the Malian government plans to seek the services of a private military company from the Russian Federation - which the Malian prime minister spoke about publicly at the UNGA session - this issue is exclusively within the jurisdiction of the legitimate Malian government," Lavrov said after talks with Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop.
Speaking about the phenomenon of private military companies, Lavrov noted that "we have nothing to do with the activities of any such structures, which are created by Russian citizens, they independently conclude contracts."
"If these contracts are concluded with legitimate governments of sovereign states, I don't see what can be seen as negative here," Lavrov added.
The Kremlin has previously stated that there are no representatives of the Russian armed forces on Malian territory. When asked whether the defense minister of Mali had raised the issue of military assistance during his visit to Russia, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied that Moscow maintains contacts, including military ones, with many countries, including states on the African continent. Peskov was commenting on reports in the Western media referring to anonymous sources who claimed that the Malian authorities were allegedly in contact with the Wagner PMC.
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Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from RIA Novosti