Just days after Russian mercenaries left Mali after three years fighting armed anti-government groups in the African nation, Mali’s president flew into Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
General Assimi Goïta, who, as commander of Mali’s Special Operations Battalion, took power in a 2020 coup, led a delegation that signed agreements on areas such as gold mining, energy, and security, with a smaller Russian fighting contingent remaining in Mali to assist with the latter.
Goïta’s office said he “received with honours befitting his status” on a visit during which he laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden near the Kremlin. It was his second visit to Russia as head of state, after the Russia–Africa Summit in St. Petersburg in July 2023.
The meeting in June 2025 marked a strengthening of cooperation between Bamako and Moscow, yet it also carried practical significance for the Confederation of the Sahel States, which includes Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, whose governments have all been overthrown by military leaders in recent years).
Ministers signed agreements on trade, scientific collaboration, agriculture, gold, and the peaceful use of nuclear energy, the latter having been signed by the director-general of Russia’s state-owned Rosatom and Mali’s energy minister. Yet defence and security were also on the agenda for Putin and Goïta.
Captured moments when President Vladimir Putin of Russiareceives President Assimi Goïta of Maliduring their meeting in Russia. pic.twitter.com/RVJLTnsnEw
— Typical African (@Joe__Bassey) June 24, 2025
Importance of security
It is just as well. Days after Goïta returned, armed men set fire to government buildings in Western Mali in a series of large-scale jihadist attacks near the border with Senegal. Reports suggest Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda linked group, targeted numerous buildings, including a police and customs office in Diboli, as part of a wide-ranging attack across at least seven towns.
Mali’s army, whose bases in the region were attacked, said it had ‘neutralised’ the threat and killed more than 80 militants, but the incident shows that its security issues are far from over, despite announcements of progress against the ethnic Tuareg separatists Mali’s army has been fighting for years in the Sahara Desert.
In Moscow, Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov and Malian Defence Minister Sadio Camara discussed the implementation of prior military agreements aimed at strengthening security and sovereignty—something Goïta asked Russia (via the Wagner Group) to help him achieve after French and Western forces left in 2021.
Goïta has an insider's knowledge of operations. An army officer and Sunni Muslim from the Malinké ethnic group, he received military training both at home and abroad, including in France, Germany, Gabon, and the United States, before participating in combat operations against terrorist groups, which earned him his stripes.
