[GEO] BAMAKO, MALI
[Man] Down with Macron!
[Man] Down with France!
[Woman] We stand by our soldiers. I don't call them a junta
[Woman] I call them sons of Mali, soldiers of Mali, who are liberating Mali
[Man] Today is like the 1st day of independence
[Man] We must regain our independence and fight neo-colonialism
[Denis Degterev] Mali openly defied French neo-colonialism
[DENIS DEGTEREV HEAD, DEPARTMENT OF THEORY AND HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, RUDN UNIVERSITY] They
had all French troops withdrawn from their territory. It wasn't easy. They had been there for decades
[Aboubacar Maiga] All of Africa is now counting on Mali, and is looking at Mali,
watching what is happening in our country now
[Denis] Mali is a place where history is being made right now
[Denis] If it succeeds, it'll be a really big deal
BATTLE FOR AFRICA
[DMITRY SUSLOV DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CENTRE FOR COMPREHENSIVE EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, HSE UNIVERSITY] There
is some competition, and a battle for Africa going on. Senior officials from Russia, the US, and European countries
travel there, each with their own agenda
[Irina Abramova] The first one to go there was Sergey Lavrov,
who went on a tour of the African countries important to us now
[Irina] He was followed by Blinken, Macron, and Scholz
[Irina] They all went after the Russian Foreign Minister
because they feared Africa would take a pro-Russian stance
regarding the West's policy against us
[IRINA ABRAMOVA DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR AFRICAN STUDIES OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY
OF SCIENCES] We shouldn't forget African nations account for 54 votes in the UN
[Irina] They're 25% of the UN's membership,
so their stance is vital to us
[Dmitry] The battle for Africa has intensified
since the start of the Russia-West proxy war,
but the battle for Africa began before that
[GEO] BAMAKO, MALI
[Souleymane Traore] In 2012, a crisis unfolded in Mali
[Souleymane] Allegedly, due to terrorist attacks carried out in Mali,
[Souleymane] Western countries came here to fight terrorism
[SOULEYMANE TRAORE ACTIVIST, MOVEMENT FOR COOPERATION BETWEEN MALI AND RUSSIA] However,
the situation deteriorated day by day: people were being killed...
villages attacked...
things were worsening
[Activist] Russia helped us before, a long time ago
[Activist] We thought we should ask Russia to help us combat gangs,
terrorism and terrorists, and the so-called jihadists
[Activist] That's how it all started
[Souleymane] We told Malians that to beat this crisis
we needed to submit a petition,
calling on Russia to help us solve this problem
[Souleymane] Those wanting Russia to aid us should sign the petition
[Activist] Little by little, we managed to collect eight million signatures
[Activist] We did it! In two years
[Activist] We've been appearing on local radio,
and we ran advertisements
[Souleymane] Then we distributed it in the regions. A bit here and there
[Souleymane] That's how we collected 8,804,849 signatures
[Souleymane] You see?
[Activist] There are changes in all areas, especially in security
[Activist] Two or three years ago, our army was in retreat
[Activist] But now it's chasing them!
[Activist] Who's helping us fight now?
[Activist] The Russian Federation!
[Nikita Khrushchev] Long live the friendship between the Soviet Union
and the Republic of Mali
[Evgeny Korendyasov] Mali gained independence in September of 1960,
and immediately demanded that the French airbase leave their territory!
[EVGENY KORENDYASOV SOVIET DIPLOMAT, AMBASSADOR TO MALI] De Gaulle... imposed a total economic blockade on Mali
[Evgeny] We'd recently established diplomatic relations with them
and had to help them somehow
[Evgeny] We sent them diesel fuel by plane to illuminate the presidential palace
[Evgeny] We supplied them with everything. They thought our rice was bad
because it was all broken
[Evgeny] They also thought our lump sugar was defective
[Evgeny] What was it?
[Evgeny] And it dissolved 10 times slower than cane sugar
[Evgeny] The French immediately picked the story up
[Evgeny] We also supplied bulldozers we'd used for clearing snow
[Evgeny] The French immediately went on about us bringing snowploughs
[Evgeny] Snowploughs? They were just bulldozers to move sand
[Evgeny] The French needed something to discredit us with:
'They sent snowploughs to Africa! Soviet dogs!'
[Evgeny] They were wary of whites, hadn't ever met Russians before
[Evgeny] Mutual contact developed gradually. We know each other well now
[Evgeny] After all, 60 years have passed
[Evgeny] There are more than 10k Mali graduates from Soviet universities
[Archive] What will you be? - A journalist, a lawyer, a scientist…
[Archive] A journalist, a lawyer, a scientist...
[Student] I will be a lawyer
[Student] We speak...
[Student] You speak…
[Evgeny] When I came as ambassador,
half the members of the government spoke Russian:
even opposition parties, Politburo held meetings in Russian,
so the French couldn't listen in
[Evgeny] 80% of army weapons are Russian or Soviet-made
[Evgeny] 90% of army officers graduated from our military universities
[Evgeny] The USSR has many friends all over the world
[Archive] It has also found many friends in the newly independent Africa
[Archive] Long live the freedom of the peoples of Africa!
[Archive] Long live peace in the world!
[GEO] BAMAKO, MALI
[BAKARY BOUARE] We met at university, in Kiev, at KSU, Kiev State University
[BINTOU FOUNE SAMAKE BOUARE] We were freshmen
[Bintou] They met us in Kiev because they'd arrived a little before us
[Bintou] I was 20 years old. He was young then, full of energy
[Bintou] Not as old as you see him now
[Bintou] That's how we met
[Bintou] We had both lived here in Bamako, but we'd never met before
[Director] How long have you been together? [Bintou] 35 years
[Bintou] Ah! 35, already 35 years...
[Bintou] Our first child was born in 1988, and we have four kids
[Bintou] Now we live with our daughters-in-law
[Bintou] We have 3. Our 3 sons are married
[Bintou] And we have grandchildren!
[Bakary] Have we lived a happy life? [Bintou] We have
[Bintou] And our work, generally speaking, has been recognised by the state
[Bintou] I was appointed Minister for Women, Children, and Families
[Bakary] I was also a teacher for about 20...
well, almost 26 years
[Irina Abramova] The Soviet Union contributed much to the progress of Africa
and laid the foundations for its national economy
[Irina] The Soviet Union built more than 300 large industrial concerns,
more than 1,000 facilities of all kinds
for energy, transport, and social infrastructure...
schools, hospitals, research centres...
[Irina] The Soviet Union established about 10 universities in Africa
[Irina] Russian specialists worked there: doctors, scientists, and engineers
[Archive] And when a new factory or a new hospital, built with Soviet
assistance, opens, it represents yet another sign of Africa's new life.
[Kassae Nygusie Volde Mikael] I came to Russia in 1985...
as a student
[KASSAE NYGUSIE VOLDE MIKAEL PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF THEORY AND HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS, RUDN UNIVERSITY] I lived next to a Soviet hospital, so I hung out with the doctors
[Director] More details, please!
[Kassae] I could go in any time, and no one stopped me
[Kassae] They treated me to jam, saying:
'Let the Ethiopian kid try it!'
[Irina] Years passed: we parted ways for 30 years
[Irina] We paid no attention for that long, or even longer
[Irina] But Africans remember it to this day. Amazing!
[Irina] Because young Africans today
are mostly educated in the West or China
[Irina] Nevertheless, they still have a very positive attitude towards our country
[Man] I bought the flag because we're proud of cooperating with Russia
[Man] We love Russia!
[Man] I bought my first Russian flag in 2021
[Man] Then it started to look old, so I bought a new one,
a new flag
[Man] When this one gets old and fades,
[Man] I will buy a new one again
[Man] And so on, until...
[Man] I want to buy Russian flags for as long as I live!
[Woman] Hi!
[Woman] Do you have a large Russian flag?
[Woman] Give us big flags of Mali and Russia
[Seller] Do you want a factory or hand-made flag?
[Woman] Factory-made!
[Amina] It's very well known that when Russia and Mali cooperated
in many areas in the past, the country prospered!
[Amina] Hold it, kids! What country's flag is that?
[Amina] It's the Russian flag
[Amina] Come on, lift it higher!
[Amina] There!
[Amina] That's great!
[AMINA FOFANA ACTIVIST] My commitment to the idea that Africa should cooperate with Russia
isn't limited to Mali
[Amina] I often travel and campaign in other African countries,
all of which want to be like Mali
[Amina] Everyone there wants a patriotic president,
who, like Assimi Goïta, cooperates with Russia
[Kids] We don't like France, it should leave!
[Kids] We don't like the French flag
[Amina] No, it's not the French flag, it's the Russian flag: white, blue, red
[Kids] Ah, that's what it is...
[Kids] Well, this one we like
[Man] We only want Russia!
[Amina] The Russian flag has horizontal stripes,
and the French flag has vertical ones
[People] Are they French? [Amina] French? No, they're Russians
[People] If they are Russians, I welcome them
[People] They are our brothers
[People] They can stay here as long as they want
[People] Here's the Russian flag! Down with France!
[People] We love Russia!
[Amina] We need to get rid of Western influence
because the West's time is over
[Dmitry] New centres of power have appeared, new alternatives
[Dmitry] The main reason for Europe's decreasing influence in Africa
is China taking an active role in the world's economy and politics
[Dmitry] Middle Eastern countries and India
have begun to play a bigger role in Africa
[Dmitry] That also creates more freedom of choice for African countries,
and makes them less dependent on the Europeans
[Dmitry] The battle for Africa began when they started considering it
a centre of politics and international economy
[Dmitry] That happened somewhere around the beginning of the 2010's,
when they started saying that Africa is the Asia of the 21st century
[Irina] Africa's resources are, first of all, used in hi-tech industries
[Irina] The Democratic Republic of Congo, for example,
has the world's largest reserves of cobalt
[Irina] No military industry can develop without it
[Irina] US dependency on Congo's cobalt alone is over 60%
[Irina] The same goes for coltan
[Irina] Congo has the world's largest reserves of coltan
[Irina] And no cell phone can work without coltan
[Irina] Today, Africa accounts for 35% of the world's mineral resources
[Irina] These resources haven't been fully explored
or divided up yet
[Irina] Who gets access to these resources
will determine how the world economy develops
[Irina] Russia created a full geological map of Africa
but didn't make use of it. The Chinese did!
[Irina] They've been winning recent tenders for exploring new mineral deposits
[Irina] All these oil and gas deposits, now discovered in East Africa
were predicted by Russian geologists in the 1980's
[Irina] They believed that along the Great Rift Valley,
which runs through East Africa,
there were huge oil and gas deposits,
both on that territory and the shelf. They were right!
[Irina] Today, China has taken the role the USSR once played in Africa,
but the attitude is different. The USSR mostly helped Africa
[Irina] It gave it a lot, hoping there'd be a good return,
but the USSR collapsed, and we didn't reap the dividends
[Irina] China came and took everything Russia abandoned
and added more
[Irina] They invest hugely in infrastructure,
development of mineral deposits, the energy sector,
industrial facilities, social infrastructure, roads, hospitals…
[Irina] China surely does a lot for Africa
[Irina] But... Here's an example: they were extracting oil in West Africa
and laying railroads
[Irina] Once they'd depleted the deposit and extracted all the oil,
they took the tracks away
[Irina] The locals had already used them to move around and do routine tasks
[Irina] It's a consumer attitude. Although in the last few years,
they might've guessed something
because Africans were expressing discontent,
talking about a form of Chinese neo-colonialism
[Irina] China said, 'We're not colonialists! We all work together'
[Irina] At the last ministry conference, they said
it was also crucial for them to create jobs for Africans
[GEO] CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE BAMAKO, MALI
[Teacher] When do you think is the best time to travel to Beijing?
[Teacher] So I say, when do you think is the best time to go to Beijing?
[Teacher] Let's look at the 2nd word: 'think'
[Students] Think!
[Teacher] 'Think!' What do you think about my Chinese?
[HERVÉ FABIEN MABOM MARKETING & PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER – STARTIMES CAMEROUN] In 2015, during
the Chinese-African forum, President Xi Jinping stated that they'd soon launch a project
to connect 10,000 African villages to digital TV
in over 25 African countries
[Hervé] 300 villages in Cameroon were to receive equipment
[Hervé] Each Startimes crew had four or five technicians and a driver,
who took them around the villages
[Hervé] Neighbourhoods gained access to electricity they hadn't had before
[Hervé] They also received TVs, decoders,
satellite dishes, and even solar panels
[Local] We chose more populated places
because the technology is new,
and we'd like everyone to see it
[Local] It was free
[Local] No one paid for this equipment
[Local] It has almost everything, over 600 channels. That's a lot!
[Local] The picture is clear
[Local] Everything's great. I really enjoy it
[Local] I'm now a loyal fan
In my family, when it arrived,
everyone got very excited about...
the new channels we subscribed to
[Local] It can cause problems
[Local] My kids went mad without TV, when we got disconnected one time
because we couldn't pay for it
[Evgeny] The Chinese have it figured out, like they did in Mali
[Evgeny] Towns out there are 280-300 km from each other
[Evgeny] At every other kilometre, a Chinese guy stood touting aspirin
[Evgeny] It's how they promoted their own brand
[Irina] The African market is growing very fast
[Irina] Consumer demand doubles every 5 years
[Andrey] The Chinese provide all sorts of consumer goods
[Andrey] It's a huge market and marketing system
[ANDREY MASLOV DIRECTOR, CENTRE FOR AFRICAN STUDIES, HSE UNIVERSITY] The population
has doubled since I've been studying Africa
[Andrey] Even though I'm not that old...
it's doubled!
[Andrey] In the 1990's, it was around 700 million, and now it's 1.4 billion
[Andrey] It won't take very long for it to double again
[Vasily Kashin] China's role in economic development is much greater
than any Western country's
VASILY KASHIN CHIEF RESEARCHER, CENTRE FOR COMPREHENSIVE CHINESE STUDIES AND REGIONAL PROJECTS, MGIMO UNIVERSITY
[Vasily] China's key feature and advantage is that it generally
doesn't interfere in other countries' internal affairs
[Vasily] But again, when their presence is too big,
as in Zimbabwe...
they have to interfere. In the coup in Zimbabwe in 2017,
when Mugabe was overthrown,
the coup's initiators apparently sought China's advice,
which they were happy to give. However, this is an exceptional case
[Vasily] Zimbabwe is one of China's foothold states
[Vasily] I'd say their presence is strongest in...
[Vasily] Zimbabwe, Angola, and Ethiopia
[Andrey] Historically, and for centuries,
[Andrey] East Africa was much poorer and less developed, on average,
than West Africa, which had more access to Western markets
[Andrey] But during the last ten years, it has grown faster and more confidently
than West Africa every year
[Irina] Rates of digitalisation
are the highest in the world: up to 1,200% a year
[Irina] Where else do you see that? They're at the forefront of e-pay solutions:
'eNaira' in Nigeria, and Rwanda has abandoned paper money
[Irina] The 1st online transaction was in Kenya
[Irina] Africa has many start-ups among young people in different areas
[Irina] In Africa, women's development is strongly supported
[Irina] Women are far more represented in African parliaments
than in Russia, for example
[Irina] Growth rates are high, as is consumer spending
[Irina] It has new programmes, many interesting things
that we're ignorant of. It hosts technology forums every 2 years
[Mamadou Gouro Sidibe] IT is a sector in which developing countries such as Mali
are creating new jobs
because all you need is a computer and a phone
[Mamadou] I studied in St. Petersburg in Russia
to become an IT engineer
[MAMADOU GOURO SIDIBE SOCIAL NETWORK FOUNDER] I created the world's first voice-activated social network
[Mamadou] It speaks a number of languages
[Mamadou] It's called 'Lenali'
[Mamadou] This is the world's only social network with which you can do
anything using voice messages, or voice message attachments
[Mamadou] No other social network can do that. Let's demonstrate it
[Mamadou] This image description isn't written, as in other social networks:
it's vocalised, like this
[Mamadou] We have voice comments
[Mamadou] Another innovation! It's the world's only social network
that lets you leave voice comments
[Mamadou] Why? Because most people are illiterate
[Mamadou] I speak in Bambara, and everything I say is translated. Let's go!
[Mamadou] We have 5 people who speak 5 major languages
[Mamadou] Our app reaches more people
and does a better job than French, English, or Spanish,
which people here don't understand
[Mamadou] To make money, a social network needs many users,
at least a million. I haven't reached that. So how do we make money?
[Mamadou] Many people noticed that to create the network,
we invented some voice technologies and apps
[Mamadou] Many came to us and asked us to do
something similar for them in their industry
[Irina] Africa's population is growing fast
[Irina] By 2050, 40% of the world's young people will be living in Africa
[Irina] Today, 60% of Africa's population is under the age of 25
[Irina] By the 2050's, global consumption
will be led by the youth of Africa
[Irina] The nature of global consumption and market flows will have changed
[Irina] It's well understood worldwide that to a large extent the future
depends on what kind of relations can be forged with Africa
[Kassae] Before the Europeans came, Africa only had 10 countries
[Kassae] Europe's conquest has resulted in 55 nations today
[Kassae Nygusie Volde Mikael] The Sahel is a very complex region
[Kassae] On the map, its borders with the Sahara Desert are delineated
[Kassae] However, that territory is impossible to control
because of the way people move about
[Kassae] Europe didn't respect the territorial boundaries of ethnic groups,
which caused interstate and interethnic conflicts
[Kassae] They also shoe-horned rival peoples into one state
[Kassae] The conflict between the Tutsi and Hutu is a great example
[VO] This is how the British Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil described this process:
“We have been engaged in drawing lines upon maps where no white man’s foot ever trod;
we have been giving away mountains and rivers and lakes to each other, only hindered by
the small impediment that we never knew exactly where the mountains and rivers were.”
[Denis Degterev] The colonialists' artificial borders created some problems
[Denis] There was an anti-colonial period
[Denis] Mali's prime minister, a historian, said this:
'I thoroughly analysed Lumumba's and Nkrumah's biographies
to see where their fight for independence went wrong'
[Denis] I want to look into this further
[Aboubacar Maiga] We're going through our second coup d'état in less than a decade
[ABOUBACAR MAIGA CEO, BAMAKO HIGHER SCHOOL OF JIURNALISM] In January of 2012, there
was a rebellion, and then, an insurgency led to a revival of terrorism in Mali
[Aboubacar] In April and May of 2020, there were parliamentary elections,
which stirred up huge protests challenging the results
[Aboubacar] Following this, the military, which are now in power,
joined the protestors in order to put an end to the regime
[Aboubacar] France doesn't like this because the situation is changing,
and, over the years, the French have got used to
dictating terms to Africa and having them all fulfilled
[Aboubacar] Mali no longer wants to accept France's dictates
on how to manage our affairs
[Aboubacar] This is what we want to tell the former colonial power
[Aboubacar] The former colonies were said to be somewhat independent,
but, in reality, they continued to rely on French policies in all spheres
[Aboubacar] We want to choose our own partners,
and have the opportunity to decide how our resources will be used
[Andrey Maslov] All laws concerning crypto-mining, oil, and gas in Africa
need to be rewritten
[Andrey] They're currently written to make it as easy as possible
for private corporations to take resources out
[Andrey] I had a case in Nigeria...
where we had to extend our licences
[Andrey] They were issued by Nigeria a year after it gained independence
[Andrey] But who issued it?
[Andrey] It was signed by a British person...
a British colonial official
[Andrey] And despite its independence,
he was head of Nigeria's Oil and Gas Department
[Andrey] Those licences were extended again and are still valid
[Andrey] Licences are still issued by a foreign citizen in their civil service
[Andrey] Nigeria's interests in issuing those licences weren't even considered
[Andrey] The pipelines that pump oil and other petroleum products
out of the Niger Delta belong to Western companies like Shell,
and their internal technical control standards
are nothing like Europe's or America's
[Andrey] In those countries,
they wouldn't have passed a single technical inspection
[Andrey] The government has the authority to control this,
but not all African countries understand this
[Andrey] It all largely depends on Africans' awareness
that they can form their own self-governance
[Oumar Kamara] These are the most beautiful women we've ever had in Mali
[Oumar] They are black Mona Lisas
[Oumar] The best students were sent to Russia, the USSR back then
[Oumar] I studied at the Repin Academy of Arts
[Oumar] Later, I painted on Nevsky Prospekt
[Oumar] This is 1980, maybe 1981
[Oumar] This man is also a university lecturer
[Oumar] This is my Ethiopian friend,
and he's from Guinea-Bissau
[Oumar] This is Georgi Nikita, and Dominic Bangay from Congo
[Oumar] And here is Tatyana Norinkova, she married a Finn
[Oumar] They all studied here, and when they came to me,
[Oumar] I drew their portraits
[OUMAR KAMARA PAINTER, ART HISTORY PROFESSOR] If they'd sent me to France, things might have been different
[Oumar] I would think like they do
[Oumar] But I fought against a kind of European democracy
that doesn't match our culture
[Oumar] We studied French culture at school,
but very little of our own culture
[Oumar] In those days, we didn't quite understand,
but we knew something was wrong
[Oumar] If I'd studied in France,
I'd probably think that it's OK
[Oumar] But in Russia, I realised that we were respected in Africa
[Oumar] They had a totally different policy and opinion concerning African countries
[Oumar] Neither the Soviet Union nor Russia ever colonised any African countries
[Oumar] All of Africa is watching Mali right now
[Oumar] We are adjusting our course in Africa here in Mali
[Oumar] We're talking about a new Mali - 'Mali Kura'
[Oumar] That's Malian, sorry...
[Oumar] I think we are gradually moving towards our sovereignty
[Oumar] Let's put it that way
[Aboubacar] Today, we're in the process of adopting a new constitution
[Aboubacar] And in this new constitution, the language issue is very sensitive
For now, we continue to accept French as our official language,
but in the future,
we'll use one of our own national languages as the official one
[Aboubacar] Right now, we don't know whether to choose
Fulfulde, Maninkakan, Songhay, or Tamasheq
[Aboubacar] If we added this issue to our current problems,
it would only deepen our crisis
[Irina] France has greatly weakened its position
[Irina] Its only remaining advantage is culture
[Irina] All the elite speak French and many studied in France,
but the attitude to France is bad
[Evgeny] France without Africa isn't a world power
[Evgeny] The French colonies in Africa covered an area of 9 million km2
[Evgeny] France itself is only 500,000 km2
[Evgeny] How much larger is that... almost 20 times!
[EVGENY KORENDYASOV SOVIET DIPLOMAT, AMBASSADOR] And what childish offence they took regarding Russia
for establishing good relations with the Central African Republic
[Evgeny] Russia's improving relations with African countries
makes them jealous
[Irina] Africans perceive the French, British, and Americans as colonisers
[Irina] All of France's recent actions, especially in the Sahel,
which were supposed to provide security from terrorism, have failed
[Irina] So Africans, especially Sahelian Africans, ask:
'Why all these coups?'
[Irina] Why is everyone carrying Russian flags and portraits of Putin?
[Irina] They think only Russia can give them security,
as it did for the Central African Republic
[Irina] They trust Russia because it never colonised Africa
[VO] The Soviet Union does not and may not have any special interest in Africa, it is not looking for any benefits for
itself there. We are interested in developing good relations,
promoting cooperation, and exchanging cultural values.
[Irina] Despite colossal pressure being exerted on Africans by the West,
and their great economic dependence on China,
Africans nevertheless retain an amazing love for our country
[Irina] And, if we look at the UN vote on the referendums in our new territories,
18 of the 35 countries that
abstained were African nations
[Irina] That's over a half
[VO] After the completion of the Soviet-Zimbabwean negotiations, an agreement on economic and
technical cooperation between the USSR and the Republic of Zimbabwe was signed in the Kremlin.
[Archive] This was my first visit to the Soviet
Union after Zimbabwe attained its independence
[JACOB MUDENDA, SPEAKER, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, ZIMBABWE] Zimbabwe and Russia are
victims of sanctions, so they are comrades in the fight against the sanctions.
[Jacob Mudenda] To that extent that, as victims, we share the same consequences of the sanctions.
[Jacob Mudenda] It won’t be surprising that Zimbabwe is on the side of Russian Federation.
[Evgeny] When they abstain, it's wonderful
[Evgeny] We understand their logic: they don't want to cut ties with the West
[Evgeny] Why would they?
[Evgeny] Africans sometimes deliberately demonstrate
closeness to Moscow and Putin,
in order to put pressure on the West and receive some kind of bonuses
[Evgeny] They let China in to scare the US and France, and vice versa
[Irina] There is a lot of competition for African markets
[Irina] Besides China, there are India and Brazil,
as well as Turkey in recent years
[Irina] Turkey's taken niches we could occupy
[Irina] For example, Turkish Airlines
flies to all African nations,
2-3 flights to various cities in some countries
[Irina] Today, Turkey is not just a food-related hub,
but one for transporting Africans to and from Europe
[Irina] When they made this decision in 2013,
they never thought, like our FATA would:
'Will we be able to fill these flights?
Prove this to us first!'
[Irina] They just set up flights there, and now they're full to the brim
[Irina] They invite students too
[Irina] And there's China's Confucius Institutes
that teach Chinese in every African nation. Some have 2!
[Irina] They invite 50,000 African students to China a year
and provide them with transport, housing, and a stipend,
among other things
[Irina] Why? Because they know they're forming the future African elite,
which will decide which countries to interact with,
what economic assets to develop,
and whose interests to base cooperation on
[Irina] Thank God, we trained about half a million
highly qualified African personnel during Soviet times
[Irina] Of these, 250,000 studied here, and 250,000 were trained locally
[Irina] Many still occupy key positions in
African ministries and departments,
and this also saves us
[Irina] But as these people retire, new elites are being formed,
and we've closed all our cultural centres
[Irina] Mali's Minister of Energy came and said:
'We really want to learn Russian, organise a Russian language centre'
[Irina] This isn't hard to do: there are textbooks and methodologies
left over from Soviet times, and Malians want to learn Russian!
[Irina] They say: 'We don't like French, but it's how we communicate'
[Irina] With Russian, they'd relate to us completely differently
[Bakari] The Russians built this university
[Masha] My dad finished school in Mali
and won a scholarship to study in Moscow
[Masha] He read chemistry at Mendeleev University,
where he met my mum
[Bakari] Sister! What took you so long to get here?
[GEO] MOSCOW, RUSSIA
[Bakari] Yeah, you've grown a little!
[Bakari] Hi there!
[Bakari] Come on, let's go
[Bakari] Welcome to my domain!
[Masha] No! Welcome to my lodgings
[Masha] My parents met at this university, but where exactly...
in which dorm, I don't know
[GEO] BAMAKO, MALI
[Mother] It was my fifth year, and his second. The dorms were being renovated
[Mother] They put us in opposite rooms. That's how we met
[Mother] We cooked together in the kitchen
[Mother] Bakari is studying where we did and lives in the same dorm
[Mother] He took second place in the 'Best Moscow Student' contest
[Mother] Bakari's at Mendeleev University
[Mother] Masha is studying dentistry at RUDN, to work with prostheses
[Mother] Madu is a postgraduate student, producing solar panel coating
[Madu] I study at the Faculty of Science and Technology in Bamako:
first-year chemistry student
[Masha] My fiancé is waiting for me
[Masha] My life is there, so I'm going back
[Masha] I'm a resident orthopaedic dentist
[Masha] There are very few of us in Mali
[Masha] There are only about 3 or 4 specialists in orthopaedic dentistry
[Masha] Because there are so few of us, we are in big demand
[Dad] When choosing a major, you need one that leads to work
[Dad] For example, you could study nuclear physics,
but when will they launch anything nuclear in Mali? Not right now!
[Dad] Astrophysics is also no good
[Dad] Computer science and AI are currently in demand there
[Dad] She's sleeping? [Mother] No, she doesn't go to bed early
[Mother] I don't know, maybe she is sleeping
[Mother] Oh, wait... I don't get it. It's after 10, where are you?
[Masha] I'm with a friend, he invited me to a restaurant
[Mother] You got a scholarship and went to a restaurant?
[Mother] So, okay...
[Mother] Here, deal with this!
[Masha] Hello!
[Andrey] There's certainly still some love for Russia
[Andrey] There's a big demand for us to solve African problems
[Andrey] It must be done carefully and thoroughly
[Andrey] We must increase the number of students studying in Russia
[Andrey] It's beneficial all round
[Irina] 21,000 African students are currently studying in Russia
[Irina] That's nothing for a continent that will soon number 1.5 billion people
[Irina] Africans' good attitude needs to be backed up with tangible actions
[Irina] We need to take our relations to a new level,
and I hope that the African vector,
aside from the Asian one, will now take its rightful place
[Irina] A powerful boost for our relations
happened at the first Russian-African summit in Sochi, in October 2019
[Irina] All countries were represented
[Irina] We signalled clearly that Russia is returning to Africa
[Irina] It's our strategic partner. We have the same goals
[Irina] For Africans and for us, political and economic sovereignty is vital
[Irina] We're all in the same boat
[Aboubacar] After independence, we didn't have enough intelligentsia in Mali
[Aboubacar] We didn't have educated and energetic young people
who thought about their future
[Aboubacar] And Mali had a small population
[Aboubacar] Assimi Goïta became the first president of Mali
to govern such a nation
[Aboubacar] It's important to realise that young people seized power
[Aboubacar] The colonels ruling now,
who carried out the coup, are around 40 years old
[Aboubacar] These are young people, they're young leaders,
and a significant part of the population recognises itself in them
[Aboubacar] Another thing is that, during the struggle for independence,
there were blocs: a Soviet bloc and a Western bloc
[Aboubacar] However, today's world is multipolar
[Evgeny Korendyasov] Africans will take more and more into their own hands
[Evgeny] The continent is fabulously rich,
and it's becoming increasingly involved
in global financial, economic, and humanitarian processes
[Irina Abramova]Many countries' futures depend on
what sympathies the Africans will have, and which bloc they'll join
[VO] By the year 2100, about 40% of the planet's population will live in Africa.