One of the reasons for Russia’s aggression to Ukrainewhich began in 2014, was seized from the Naval Base of Sebastopol, on the Crimea Peninsula. For centuries it was the only Russian port in warm waters and, after the dissolution of the USSR, Kiev lent him to Moscow.
Since Tsar Pedro I, which reigned between 1682 and 1721, the fixation of the Russian rulers has been to have ice -free ports and open seas. His first naval base in the Mediterranean was that of Tartús, in Syria, ceded by the Háfez Al-Va regime in 1971 and that is still operational, despite the flight of his son Bashar al-Vasad, last December.
Russia wants to recover part of the force and allies that the USSR arranged, for which she is taking advantage of the war. In February, before Donald Trump and JD Vance will abroach Zelenski In the White House, in Moscow the Russian and Sudanese Foreign Ministers met to announce the immediate application of the agreement signed in 2020 by which the African country authorized the Eurasian to establish a naval base. The overthrow by a military coup of the dictator Omar al-Bashir, the invasion of Ukraine and the outbreak of a civil war in Sudan had postponed it so far.
The port, assigned for a period of 25 years, will admit ships driven by nuclear energy and host up to 300 Russians. In this way, Russia breaks into one of the most hot From Earth.
The base will be in front of the coast of Saudi Arabia and in the middle of the Red Sea. To the north, the Suez channel is found, which belongs to Egypt, and the Gulf of Aqaba, the only exits to this sea of Jordan and Israel; The three are allies of the United States. To the south, the Bab El-Mandeb Strait, stage of skirmishes since December 2023 among the Yemeni hutis, which receive support (drones and rockets) of Iran, and several naval forces that participate in the Guardian operation of prosperity, directed by the United States.
In the African Bab El-Mandeb rock is the Republic of Yibuti, a small country little larger than the province of Badajoz and that, due to its strategic situation on a fundamental navigation route for the world, accepts military presence of the United States, France, Italy, Japan, China and Saudi Arabia.
Another of the African countries that Russia would like to install a naval base is Algeriawhose regime was, since its independence in the 60s, a faithful ally of the old USSR. Several times Moscow has asked for the gerontocracy that governs Algeria (its current president, Abdelmajid Tebboune, will turn eighty in November, and its predecessor, Abdelaziz Buteflika, died in office, with ninety -four years, after twenty government) to build a base in the city of Oran, together with Alicante through Ferriesor elsewhere. The Algerians have rejected requests for now.
However, Algeria, natural gas exporter to Europe and the most extensive African country, is also the one with the largest military expense in the continent. Its main military technology supplier is Russia. The latest products sent by Moscow are Sukhoi SU-35 fighters, apparently the same as they were going to buy Egypt and that in the end rejected for pressures from the United States. This type of hunt can face and, in the opinion of some experts, even overcome the F-35, from which the Moroccan press has published that their country will acquire twenty units.
Algeria continues to protect the Saharawi in Tinduf. These in 2020 have resumed a low intensity war against Morocco, occupant of their territory, of which the UN still considers Spain administrator power, since it is pending decolonizing. In 2021, Algeria and Morocco broke diplomatic relations and closed their border.
In addition, Algiers is freeing a duel with Paris for his refusal to admit the deportation of his sixty citizens to whom the French accuse of criminals and terrorists. The French government has threatened to undo the immigration agreement in force since 1968 between the two countries, but has not achieved its objective.
And at the beginning of the month, Algeria protested by the Franco-Moroccan military maneuvers scheduled for September 2025, which considers “an act of provocation.”
NATO needs Morocco to monitor Algeria in the Mediterranean and the Sahara and block the Atlantic exit. Therefore, if Sultan Mohamed demands a price at the expense of Spain, we do not hesitate that Sanchez will pay it, be it for the friendship that binds to the Alauita monarch, whether by pressure from our allies.
