PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th November, 2021) The accusations against Russia of sending mercenaries to Mali are groundless, Moscow explained to its French colleagues what cooperation it has with Mali in the military sector, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
"We explained the situation with the accusations made against Russia on a regular basis that we encourage some kind of contacts between the leadership of Mali and a Russian private military company, showed the groundlessness of such allegations. We emphasized that, through interstate cooperation, we provide military-technical assistance to Mali and help with the organization of the work of the security services and the Malian army," he told reporters following the Russian-French talks in the "2+2" format (foreign and defense ministers).
"As for private military companies, we cited facts that indicate that, firstly, this phenomenon was not born in Russia, but was born in the West, and we listed examples of the functioning of this kind of private military companies that originate from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, there are many such examples," he added.
