{"id":321701,"date":"2026-01-08T15:51:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T07:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=321701"},"modified":"2026-01-08T15:51:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T07:51:30","slug":"car-president-extends-putin-invitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=321701","title":{"rendered":"CAR President extends Putin invitation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/centralnews.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1000002224.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/centralnews.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1000002224.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"1000002224\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>BANJUI, Jan 8 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) &#8212; <strong>The newly re-elected president of the Central African Republic, Faustin-Archange Touadera, has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit the country. Moscow has become a key ally of Touadera in recent years. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In 2018, the Central African Republic became the first West and Central African nation to bring in Russia\u2019s Wagner mercenaries, as the chronically unstable country sought to fend off multiple rebel groups.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Touadera, who has been in power since 2016, won a third term in office, according to provisional results from the Dec 28, 2025 presidential election, securing an outright majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a video interview with TASS, Touadera praised Putin as a &#8220;great leader,&#8221; noting the Russian president is \u201cvery attentive\u201d to relations with Bangui. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, the Wagner Group commented on preliminary results via its Telegram channel, stating there is \u201cno doubt that the chosen course of maintaining order and peace will prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Touadera\u2019s victory is expected to further Russia\u2019s strategic interests in the country, particularly in gold and diamond mining, while consolidating Moscow\u2019s influence in Central Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the Central African Republic enters another term under Touadera, his continued partnership with Russia signals a deepening geopolitical relationship, with both security and economic implications for the region. &#8212; NNN-AFRICANEWS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BANJUI, Jan 8 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) &#8212; The newly re-elected president of the Central African Republic, Faustin-Archange Touadera, has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit the country. Moscow has become a key ally of Touadera in recent years. In 2018, the Central African Republic became the first West and Central African nation to bring in Russia\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":321702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213,209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321701"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=321701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321703,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321701\/revisions\/321703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/321702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=321701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=321701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}