Assimi Goita visited a hospital in Kati on Tuesday, standing over the victims of a weekend that almost ended his junta’s rule. The Malian leader’s first public appearance since the coordinated attacks on Bamako was a choreographed display of survival. While his Defense Minister lies dead, killed during the largest insurgent strike in years, Goita is leaning harder on his foreign backers. The Kremlin has already labeled the weekend’s violence a 'coup attempt' and claimed it was foiled by the Africa Corps—the Russian mercenary outfit formerly known as Wagner.

The attacks were a nightmare of coordination. Separatist rebels from the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) joined forces with Al-Qaeda-linked militants from JNIM to strike five cities simultaneously, including the international airport in the capital. The Russian Ministry of Defense claims its forces were the only thing standing between the junta and total collapse. Since the beginning of the year, Goita has increasingly turned to these mercenaries to maintain a 'climate of terror' and impunity, according to UN reports that the junta routinely ignores.

This paper’s reading: the Russian 'Africa Corps' is not there to protect Mali; it is there to own it. The death of the Defense Minister is a convenient vacancy for a regime that is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Moscow’s shadow military. When separatist rebels and Islamic militants start working together, the state has already lost the mandate of the people. Goita is not a president; he is a patient in a Russian-guarded hospital, presiding over a country that is being carved up by foreign mercenaries and domestic insurgents.