Note: Benjamin R.Young-signed analysis examines the effects of the great power struggle from the Cold War to the present day in the third world. Of course, analysis reads the world through the eyes of the West and the set of concepts. Not geographically, but as a cultural and political system, countries outside the Western camp are portrayed as "illeberal" and "authoritarians". The 2020 war, which resulted in Azerbaijan taking its territory from Armenia, is defined as "the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh." We consider the article important to understand the effects and background of the hard struggle from Gaza to Ukraine and Karabakh, from the French colony at the bottom of the Australian continent, Caledonia. The interheads are discarded by External.
Russia Creates a Anti-Suppressing Wave in Africa
Benjamin R. Young
In May, pro-independence demonstrations spread to New Caledonia, a small Pacific island region ruled by France since 1853. Surviving the flags of the native Kanak people, as well as the flags of the pro-independence Socialist National Liberation Front, the demonstrators took to the streets to protest the voting reform measures that would provide more political power to the newcomers.
Interestingly, however, the demonstrators waved another flag: the flag of Azerbaijan. Although the similar colors of the new Caledonian and Azerbaijani flags caused some speculations about whether the demonstrators accidentally received the wrong flag, the other observers considered the presence of the Azerbaijani flag as an indication of the ideological support from Baku.
It turned out that Azerbaijani flags were not wrong. Since March 2023, Baku has strategically supported the New Caledonian independence movement under the guise of anti-colonial solidarity. After Azerbaijan invaded Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, Baku declared anti-French disinformation about New Caledonia as revenge for France's diplomatic support for Armenia. Following the protests that broke out in May, France has clearly accused Azerbaijan of this issue.
Baku’s influence campaign has successfully flared long-standing hostilities towards French descendants in New Caledonia. This resulted in violent demonstrations and riots that triggered the visit of the French President and French police forces, while Macron ultimately decided to suspend the reforms.
The incident in New Caledonia is not an isolated event. In the 1960s and 1970s, anti-colonialism, which rose as a strong ideological force, is revived and its philosophical foundations continue to shape some of the greatest geopolitical crises of Gaza to Ukraine today. Unlike the decolonization movements of the Cold War, this wave is driven by opportunistic provincial regimes that use anti-colonial rhetoric to advance their own geopolitical agendas and paradoxically colonial-style territorial usurpherations.
In the Cold War, dexolomyayson
The main objectives of the decolonization movement during the Cold War are bidirectional: to secure national independence for countries colonized by the West, and to protect sovereignty for post-colonial countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, whether through armed struggle or ideological diplomacy. The movement, which focused on ending the Vietnam War and the fight against the white minority government in southern Africa, soon became a symbol of the international left.
Despite different views on economic and social issues, the advocates of the movement have united around a central belief that Western imperialism, in particular the US variant, alone prevents the progress and development of countries known as the third world at the time. This was done together by ignoring the fact that many anti-colonial movements often have bribery and corruption issues within themselves. Many on the left, courageously over the history of Western imperialism, embraced authoritarian leaders such as Zimbabwe’s anti-colonial freedom fighter-despot Robert Mugabe, and even former North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung.
Today, the anti-colonial movement is less important than securing the independence of the few countries left over from colonialism or discussing the appropriate way for countries in the global south. The current movement, supported by state-sponsive media outlets in the capitals of authoritarian states, is a Trojan horse for the progress of global illiberalism and the revision of internationally-based order.
Anticolonialism and Avraysa powers
In order to divert Washington and its allies' attention from strategically important areas, authoritarian governments in Eurasia carried action to social media operations, which they hoped to inflamate complaints - possibly into real conflicts. This applies not only to Azerbaijan, but also to Iran, which provides financial support to anti-Israeli protest groups in sub-Saharan Africa and anti-Israeli protest groups in the United States.
But more than any other country, Russia is trying to steer the revitalized anti-colonial wave and position itself as the leading voice of the global south. The Russian leadership defines itself as the "supermantion of the global majority" and claims to lead the "error, the process of building a more just, multipolar world". After a visit to Pyongyang in June, Putin wrote in the North Korean main newspaper that the United States was trying to impose "a global neo-colonial dictatorship" to the world. Some Russians, allegedly as intelligence agents by prosecutors in the United States, are accused of providing financial support to an anti-colonial Black socialist group to promote pro-Russian rhetoric and justify Russia's illegal military actions in Ukraine. On the issue of new Caledonia, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova fueled the flame in May, saying tensions stem from "the process of getting rid of colonialism has not come to an end".
Russia's anti-colonia activity
Africa is the primary scene in which Moscow reflects itself as a pioneer of a new anti-global colonial movement. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union provided ideological and military support for numerous national liberation movements and anti-colonial struggle in Sub-Saharan Africa on the grounds of proletarian international and socialist solidarity. According to a CIA report abolished the secret of the secret, Namibia’s SWAPO guerrilla group received almost all of its weapons from the Soviet Union, and Soviet military personnel trained anti-South African apartheid guerrillas in Angola-based training camps. Moscow has also trained and trained numerous African independence fighters and anti-colonial rebels in the Communist Party schools and military institutes in the Soviet Union.
This legacy of Soviet internationalism and socialist goodwill has created a lasting sympathy for the Kremlin, and Russia remains perceived on the continent, especially in the Francophony Sahel region, as the flag bearer of anti-colonial justice and national independence. Prior to his death in August 2023, former Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin blamed Western intervention for the instability in Sahel, saying: “Old colonists are trying to control people in African countries. The former colonists fill these countries with terrorists and various bandit formations to keep them under control. Thus, they create a massive security crisis."
Despite Moscow’s own imperialist heritage and the war of recoloise in Ukraine, Russia is increasingly seen as an important supporter of anti-Western and anti-French political movements in the Sahel. The Kremlin-backed mercenaries of the Wagner Group, Africa Corps, replaced French security forces as the primary counter-revolt force for fragile West African governments. And Russian mercenaries, in addition to counter-revolat operations, provided personal protection for key African military and government leaders.
However, the transition from French intervention to Russian intervention in the Sahel raises the question of how national sovereignty the governments in the affected countries have.
Military junta in West Africa abuse anti-French feelings among the people and trade one colonial power for the other to conceal the fact that they rely only on a different foreign state for regime security. The most important thing for the juntas, unlike the French, Russian security forces have no reservations about violently suppressing political opposition and commit war crimes. For example, according to Human Rights Watch, Russian mercenaries helped the Malian army in the execution of about 300 civilians in the town of Moura, Mali, in late March 2022.
With its colonial baggage, France struggled to counter pro-Russian propaganda in the former African colonies. For example, the Cameroon-based television network Afrique Média, which has become increasingly popular, often reflects the Kremlin’s views in international events. In April 2022, Afrique Média introduced a Russian-made propaganda video that showed a Russian mercenary fleeing African jihadist prisoners, then uncovered US and French flags behind an Islamic State flag, suggesting that these Western countries support extremists.
Russia’s anti-colonicial cranisation campaign hides its efforts to advance its political and economic interests. Moscow’s efforts in Africa stem from the desire to break down the West's influence in the region, to provide diplomatic support in multilateral forums such as the United Nations, and to regain Russia's reputation as a global superpower. Moscow may also seek access to Africa’s vast natural resources, including critical minerals, and to exploit illegal networks such as illegal gold mining to overcome international sanctions and finance its war in Ukraine.
Authoritarian regimes, including those in Russia, China and Azerbaijan, would not have used anti-colonial rhetoric if they had not continued to respond in the global south. The long-standing economic inequalities with the global north and the painful past of Western interventionism, especially the wars of the United States in the Middle East, in the United States, have brought sympathy for revisionist authoritarian regimes. The current humanitarian crisis in Gaza has increased feelings for the hypocrisy of the West among some commentators and public figures in the global south.
"For Ukrainians who were bombed and left homeless by Russia, there is deep sympathy and support [in the West], but the Palestinians who were killed and deprived of food and water deserved their fate," Kenyan journalist Rasna Warah noted.
"The trauma caused by Western imperialism and colonialism should not be forgotten, on the contrary, it should be transformed into development programmes that will help build sound institutions and infrastructure in the global south."
Therefore, it is vital for Western governments to accept the shortcomings of the current international liberal order rather than trying to convince governments in the global south that this order is egalitarian and fair. The Western-led international order has a long history of violence and instability in the developing world. The trauma caused by Western imperialism and colonialism should not be forgotten, on the contrary, it should be transformed into development programmes that will help build sound institutions and infrastructure in the global south.
For example, Germany has committed $1.2 billion to finance aid projects in Namibia over the next 30 years, with a joint declaration of adopting the genocide against the peoples of Herero and Nama between 1904 and 1908, with Germany's joint declaration with Namibia in 2021, which has a long-lasting positive impact on the development of Namibian institutions, is more likely than individual financial assistance to the heirs of colonial violence.
In the near term, the United States and its Western allies should actively oppose propaganda from Baku, Tehran, Moscow and Beijing, trying to show these countries free of their interferenceful past. Exposing these countries' global disinformation campaigns - starting with labeling social media accounts linked to state media - can help warn the public about the presence of malicious actors who abuse real anti-colonialism complaints for their own political and economic goals.
Although the Soviets were certainly not a saint, there was a real internationalist and a collectiveist spirit in their interaction with the anti-colonial movement during the Cold War. The same thing can't be said for Russia today.