At least 1,890 Russian military “instructors” are in the Central African Republic.

Oleksandr Bikantov, the Russian ambassador to the Central African Republic, reported this.

The African country is also interested in increasing the presence of the Russian military in the country.

According to the Russian ambassador, “the CAR is very interested in the long-term presence of Russian representatives because it is thanks to Russia that the development of the armed forces and the training of personnel for the military and the security sector takes place.”

“Their number is unchanged – 1,890 people; recently, there was a rotation,” the Russian ambassador claimed.

According to him, a planned rotation took place recently, and “a large group of instructors went home; some Western media wrote that Russia is winding down its presence in the CAR in light of the June events, but this is not the case.”

Russia and the Central African Republic are also expanding military and technical cooperation.

In May of this year, Russia flew six L-39 aircraft to the capital of the Central African Republic.

“This actually marks the establishment of a separate type of military aviation troops of the CAR,” the Russian ambassador emphasized.

In 2020, Russia delivered ten BRDM-2 armored scout cars to the Central African Republic.

Faced with the threat of international isolation since 2014, Moscow first got involved in the Syrian war on the side of President Bashar al-Assad and then started to explore new allies on the African continent.

Official military instructors from the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation and mercenaries of the so-called Wagner PMC were deployed to the CAR.