Across Africa, Russia is growing in influence. What might Moscow want? | National & World [Video]

(CNN) — While Russian ally Bashar al-Assad was being toppled by rebels in Syria, another friend of Moscow, President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, was being chaperoned by Kremlin-backed mercenaries in the conflict-ridden Central African Republic (CAR), where armed groups are yearning to oust him.

“Without the protection of Wagner (a private Russian military force), he (Touadéra) could not be president at this time,” Aboubakar Siddick, spokesperson for an alliance of rebel groups in CAR, known as the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC-F), told CNN.

Siddick said that the CPC-F rebels were feeling “inspired” by Assad’s ouster, stating: “Touadéra’s dismissal is imperative.”

In a sign of the importance Russia places in its relationships in Africa, Vladimir Putin met Thursday with Touadéra in Moscow, in what were the Russian president’s first international talks this year.

“This is connected to the fact that we are developing relations with the Central African Republic in all possible areas, …