begun withdrawing a large amount of military equipment <\/a>and troops from Syria.<\/p>\nThe equipment transferred may have included advanced Russian air defense systems. CNN saw imagery of these systems waiting to be flown out of Syria shortly before the Russian flights started.<\/p>\n
Jalel Harchaoui, an associate fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank, told CNN there has been an \u201cundeniable spike in Russian aircraft landing in Libya from Syria, Russia and Belarus\u201d in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Hmeimim has been the hub from which Russian mercenary operations in Africa \u2013 at first in the Central African Republic and later in Sudan, Libya, Mali and Burkina Faso \u2013 were sustained.<\/p>\n
By strengthening its presence in Libya, Moscow may retain enough capability to pursue its broader ambitions further south in Africa, absorbing the new costs inevitably associated with Assad\u2019s downfall, Harchaoui said.<\/p>\n
Geolocated video shows at least one of the planes that recently arrived at al-Khadim flew on to Bamako in Mali, where Russia has recently supplanted long-term French influence<\/p>\n
\u201cRussian flights to Bamako via Libya demonstrate that Russia has already turned to Libya as an alternative to its Syrian bases,\u201d analysts at the American Enterprise Institute\u2019s Critical Threats project said in a briefing note.<\/p>\n
The flights are not consistent with the previous pattern of Russian Africa Corps rotations to Bamako, it added. Russia\u2019s Africa Corps, under the aegis of its defense ministry, is the successor to the Wagner mercenary group in Africa.<\/p>\n
The Russians have had a foothold at al-Khadim for several years, while supplying mercenary fighters and weapons to support Gen. Khalifa Haftar, the self-declared ruler of much of eastern Libya. The investigative outfit All Eyes on Wagner reported earlier this year that a secure compound had been built near the base for Russian personnel transiting to other parts of Africa.<\/p>\n
A deputy Russian defense minister, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, has made several visits to Libya to consolidate links with Haftar in the past two years.<\/p>\n
That relationship may be set to deepen if the Russian navy is eyeing a port under Haftar\u2019s control as an alternative to its facility at Tartus in Syria.<\/p>\n