A historically of Moscow, a major gas producer sought after by Europe, Algeria finds itself in a strategic position marked by ambivalence.
Algerian diplomacy has never been so dynamic, nor at the same time so illegible, as since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. So, at a time when Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra leads the way by leading a major Arab mediation mission – continuing to show ostentatious neutrality on the issue, despite Algiers being notoriously known for its proximity to Moscow – doubts have arisen again, following a strange statement by the head of state Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
On March 30, during the visit to Algiers of the American Secretary of State Antony Blinken to President Tebboune, the latter was surprisingly complacent towards Washington, according to the audio recording of the meeting which leaked on the networks. social. Did he do it out of simple courtesy or political calculation? Tebboune denounced, in very clear terms, the presence, in Libya and in the region, of the Russian armed militia Wagner, classifying it in the category of “mercenary” groups, alongside Syrian, Sudanese, and others.
Wagner: variations on a sensitive label
The recording, ignored by the official Algerian media but yet officially transcribed by the United States Department of State, went around the Web and aroused the incomprehension of large sectors of public opinion on such a sensitive issue. , coming at a crucial moment in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Because it is the first time that Algeria has dared to qualify.
The intervention of the president contrasts ostensibly with the attitude of the head of the diplomacy, Ramtane Lamamra, on April 4. This one, faced with an RFI journalist who asked him if Algeria had no opposition to ” delivering Russian troops and equipment and therefore, possibly, mercenaries to the Sahel”, a clear allusion to the Russian group Wagner, refused to speak of “mercenaries”.
Lamamra stated verbatim: “I am not sure that the qualification of ‘mercenaries’ is consensual. There are other points of view to describe the person in question. I’m not saying that I prefer such and such a point of view, but in answering your question which bears this qualification, I would not like people to understand that I am taking it up on my own, especially since the Malian government says it is not about that. Neither does the Russian government.
To measure the seriousness of the challenge represented, by the various protagonists, by the presence of the Russian group Wagner in the countries of the Sahel, it must be remembered that Paris has always reproached Algiers for not considering Russia’s activism in this region of Africa as “a foil”.
In coded language, the Russian Chancellor thanked Algeria for its “balanced position vis-à-vis the Ukrainian crisis”.
Observers from the local political scene whom we approached tried to put the scope of this “digression” by Tebboune into perspective, believing that “ the real discussions take place in meetings behind closed doors”.
Political analyst Abed Charef thinks that Algeria’s position on the Russian-Ukrainian war “is intended to be favorable to its interests and in line with its political heritage”. For him, this conflict is “ one element of a much larger puzzle, which must be considered as a whole, without succumbing to emotion and the formidable Western propaganda”.
Coded language
Does this difference in tone between the President and his Minister of Foreign Affairs reflect a difference of opinion at the top of the State on the position to be taken in relation to the Russia/Ukraine conflict? Difficult to have a definite answer.
But, what, however, complicates the readability of the Algerian position on this affair, is that the day after the broadcast of President Tebboune’s shock intervention, the Russian ambassador in Algiers, Igor Beliaev, was received with great pomp, successively by the President of the Lower House of Parliament, and by the President of the Council of the Nation. In coded language, the Russian Chancellor thanked Algeria for its “ balanced position vis-à-vis the Ukrainian crisis ”.
If it is true that Algeria had been careful until then to take up the cause of one part or another of this war, the decantation did not take long to take place behind the scenes, as evidenced by a succession of significant events in relation to the conflict. First, there was the affair of the interview granted, at the end of last February, by the CEO of the Algerian hydrocarbons company, Sonatrach, to a private Algerian daily, which quickly turned into a scandal. This official had, from the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, anticipated Algeria’s willingness to ” come to help Europe”, by replacing Russian gas if it were to be interrupted.
This statement quickly set fire to the powder. A press release from the said company disavowed its boss and threatened to sue the newspaper which had opened its columns to him. At the same time, an official from the official news agency (APS), who reported on the interview, was removed from her post. Since then, this question of exporting Algerian gas to Europe has become taboo.
Diplomacy and business
The only time it was allowed to talk about it was during the trip to Algeria by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on April 11, when the two parties were to sign a strategic gas agreement. It should be noted that Italy has become, since the rupture of relations with Morocco in December 2021, the only passage for Algerian gas to the Old Continent.
The first week of April saw Algeria play more active, but still ambivalent, roles. Firstly, the intense involvement of Ramtane Lamamra in the good office’s efforts was initiated by the Arab League: on Monday 4 April, he was at the head of a large delegation that met, separately, the heads of diplomacy of Russia and Ukraine. A privilege which was not granted to the Secretary-General of the League, the Egyptian Ahmed Aboul Gheith, who, unheard of, was content to assist Lamamra.
On April 8 in New York, by voting against the decision to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council, Algeria stopped playing neutrality, taking the risk of alienating partners like France or the United States, actively engaged against the Russian invasion.
It is one of the twenty-four countries that opposed this suspension, all allies of Moscow, including Iran, China, Cuba, Syria, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. The representative of Algeria asked the United Nations to investigate the crimes committed in Ukraine “ in a neutral and impartial manner ” in order, he said, to “ bring justice to all the victims”. Translate: Algeria does not adhere, here, to the thesis of occupation of a country, Ukraine in this case, by a great military power, even less to the version given by the Western media. For the rest, business continues!
