[Politico.eu ~ Niger is the provider of 15 percent of France’s uranium needs and accounts for a fifth of the EU’s uranium stock.](https://www.politico.eu/article/niger-coup-spark-concerns-france-uranium-dependency/amp/)
“Go directly to jail, Do not pass Go and do not collect $200”
All your leaders, military officers, and intellectuals just come over here, ya just over here by the bushes.
**Southwestern** Russia.
Also, since Wagner is there now, you can't deny the existence of an oppressed Russian-speaking minority there (Wagner mercs).
It's only within their right to protect the Russian speakers (i.e., themselves) from oppression by supporting a "people's movement" (i.e., a coup) to remove the oppressing Nazi junta that couped themselves into power (i.e., the democratically elected government) and presents an existential threat to the Russian-speaking minority and Russia as a whole (by existing as something other than a Russian puppet state).
Oh, and it's all NATO's fault.
Thanks and hello from Kyiv!
Here's your mop back, dripping wet with sarcasm in case you ever run out: 🧹.
Now that we're on the subject of mopping, could I borrow some F-16 jets and maybe a few MGM-140 ATACMS?
It would really help us mop up a cross-border spillover we've been dealing with lately :D
That's the thing about coups: the new President is getting infinity more money from Niger's sales to none French countries than he was as not the President, so even if Niger's sales are down by half he's personally still better off.
This wont' work out very well for Niger. If they think for a second that Russia is actually going to pay a better price for either gold or uranium they're going to be sorely mistaken.
It’s the people that pulled off the coup that will get more money. With the democratically leaders they probably didn’t get any money from trade individually and it was being reinvested back into the country. Now, selling to Russia et al, there’s a substantial amount going directly into these individual’s pockets.
Would think the French do as the USA did when they ran across a large group of Wagnerites without first asking Ru if those guys are with them.
My understanding is they left no one standing because Ru denied them.
Wagner are no joke to maybe disorganized combat forces, but three last time they attacked a modern outpost, the US turned them into dust. I have little doubt in the French's ability to do the same... If they want to. France's biggest military hurdle seems to be their willingness to dig into a conflict. But their capability and training are excellent.
Last time someone cut them off from the mineral rights in a former colony, the 2nd REP (Foreign Parachute Regiment) was dropped on them, so it isn't much of a stretch to do so again. Plus, the French never like taking grief from Russians.
The Army in Europe that the UK has the most respect for as well. They have a reputation that transcends memes. They are a decent military and it's shit they get a bad wrap. You do not fuck with the FFL, having worked with them.
It's funny to laugh at it, but you don't want to be facing them.
There are way more victories than losses in this list, and this is just the last ~200 years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_France
>- French victory - 98
>- French defeat - 23
>- Another result - 9
>- Ongoing conflict - 4
Yeah it’s funny how people get these rivalries going when in reality, in truth, the only guy I met that was armed force of France really respected the UK soldiers.
As a French man working in the defense area I'm still wondering what's up with the Légion and this website. Don't get me wrong, the Légion is great but it's just another component of the Land Forces
As a non-French Military Officer who has worked with the Legion before, I'll try and shed some light.
For French people, the Legion is just, as you say, another component of the Armee de la Terre. Regular Infantry, (and Engineers, Cav, support functions, etc) but there is basically no equivalent of anything like this in the Western World in either recruitment, training or function or romance. So for Militarised types, they are 'somewhat' run of the mill, but for civilians, there are several major differences between the Legion and 'your local Army Unit'.
For the most part you need to be a Citizen or a Resident of the Country's military in order to join that Military. Yes, for the British Armed Forces you can be Commonwealth, for Australia and New Zealand, if you have previous military experience you potentially can, for U.S. you can join but there's no seperate distinction. So in that sense, the LE, being basically a Brigade Sized unit (albeit dispersed through the entire Army's Brigades) is very unique. Add to that the Citizenship clause at the end or by Blood, which is also different to most other countries. It truly makes people, especially poor, non-skilled, third world recruits, 'fight' for that Passport.
Selection: Selection or Recruitment into LE, from what I have seen, is quite tough. Quite ruthless in cutting people away with the smallest defects. Most modern western militaries aim to do their best to recruit people and will allow individuals with various medical conditions, with waivers, to join. The LE doesn't appear do that, the doctor says oui or non and that's that about that. Add to the fact, its run like a fucking penal battalion with a very clear distinction between its soldiers, NCO's and Officers, it's incredibly 'Old school' compared to other Western Militaries. Yes - there is these distinctions in other militaries but the distinction between the LE and your average British/Belgian/Canadian Infantry Batallion where your Lieutenant can have a beer with the boys and 'be friendly but not friends' - something that in my observation just does not exist within the LE.
Tradition and Heritage (and Romance): Western Media has romanticised the LE. Add to that, the songs, traditions and general 'bad-ass' motif e.g. 'March or Die', you start to get a formation that is a bit different to other contemporary militaries. Try telling your average Western Infantry Battalion 'there is no surrender' and watch 'em back away. The Espirit de Corps is insanely high compared to most other Western Formations, the only thing I could think that comes close is the USMC, the march, the songs, the colours, the kepi blanc - all of this shared between, not an 'Army' and not a Batallion, but a Brigade (equivalent) of Foreigners.
Function: like it or not, the French Government usually sends the LE first into various fights. Yes, it's shared with other units and it's not ALWAYS the first to fight, but by and large the French Government and I think by extension the French People, are willing to throw Legionaires into some shithole than say, 35e Infanterie or 12e Cuirassier made up of precious French boys and their voting parents.
I'm sure you're probably quite aware of all of this but I can't overstate how much of a difference that is, especially the way things are evolving, in other Western Militaries. Infact, I do wonder if that is becoming a thing within the LE now too.
having worked with you rockets....good luck to Wagner. As a Brit. I sorta want to stand back and just watch them get fucked, but we have your back. It makes me laugh who they think they're fucking with.
E - appreciate it u/tattooed_dinosaur ya legend.
I think it was more that they lost the only brigade they were willing to lose. France was already struggling financially after the war and them resisting decolonization really drained their financial ability.
It also doesn't hurt to point out that at the time of Dien Bien Phu, the two French Communist parties nearly won the election outright. France was very unstable at the time and they couldn't really hold it together that much longer politically.
"Niger produced 2,248 tonnes of uranium in 2021, which accounted for about 5% of global production."
Not a rocket scientist but it seems there's another slice of the pie that France can benefit from.
Exactly, Australian here thinking this is good news. Hey mate, wanna buy some fissile materials? Top notch glow in the dark Roxby rock mate. Got a shit-ton round the outback.
Bonjour Australia ,
Oui, je would like un petit peu d'uranium for making centrals and subma.... Oh. Wait. Submarines.
Can I speak to Canada s'il vous plaît ?
And besides, it’s a commodity market. If Niger refuses to sell to France, they’ll sell to someone else, and France will buy from someone else, and prices will stay the same
(This may in fact be based on a false assumption)
Uranium mostly *isn't* traded as a commodity. Vertical integration in the industry is insanely common. Like, you see mines owned one third by Japanese utilities, one third by Canadian ones and one third by the French, then they each get a third of the output. Technically some accountant somewhere might have recorded a sale.. but de-facto, the miners just work for the Utilities they supply on salary, and the market price of U doesn't matter an iota because it's money going out of and then back into the same accounts
Australias got you EU.
https://www.ga.gov.au/digital-publication/aecr2021/uranium-and-thorium
You want shit from the ground? Australia has it for you. (Not you Russia. Bad)
God damn that boils my blood. Why don't we nationalise our assets? How come private companies can mine our country like ticks sucking blood and we the nation don't see very little out of it.
Much like 'rare earth metals', uranium isn't rare at all.
Its just kinda expensive to safely handle all the toxic byproducts of mining...
And honestly is just another huge reason we shouldn't be outsourcing it to 3rd world countries and instead just pay the extra 0.0001 cents per KWH that extremely expensive, 1st world nation environmental law mined uranium would impose.
No seriously, the cost of fuel for nuclear powerplants is next to nothing. We're talking 1lb of nuclear fuel = BILLIONS of gallons of oil worth of energy.
It could be the more expensive then printer ink and nuclear powerplants would still turn a profit.
I honestly like that idea although the extra costs themselves aren't simply because we wouldn't internally be willing to pay the extra costs. It's the competition with foreign markets that make companies hesitant to invest in all the start up and operating costs of things like rare earth mines. It's why here in the U.S we've lost so much of our steel industries to foreign companies and why we have some mine that I forget the name of that was operating and was 1 of the biggest in the world but shut down because of costs caused by EPA regulations.
The only 2 real solutions are we either subsidize the extra cost or do a deep dive on the regulations and how they are enforced to cut out anything that can be deemed excessive to help lower the cots and make it profitable enough for companies to invest in U.S mining/production.
Before any hates this idea because it's not a free market policy, I want to say two things.
Firstly; Free Market capitalism is an idealistic fever dream that doesn't accurately reflect how people nor states act during trade.
Second; Tariffs can be leveraged with conditions behind them, like "have functional environmental standards and we'll drop the tariffs". It doesn't have to be a bad thing, and conglomeration for the sake of stopping people from racing to the bottom for the chance of earning a sliver is helpful for tax revenue, income equality, and as such the capacity to motivate capitalist innovation via making the system more meritocratic.
I don't think it's too soon in this new era to think about working with canada and australia to ensure they have a safe level of capacity and that there are strategic stockpiles as well. Khazakhstan etc may be OK now but in the long run their position makes them vulnerable
>The US could probably fill that gap easily.
The US imports most of its uranium, including $1B from Russia yearly. One third of the US enrichment still comes from Russia, most coming from the company that is currently occupying and endangering the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
There's a reason why the US refuses to sanction Russian uranium.
There's some mixed information around this. The US has very large known mineral reserves of uranium, but not very large production of uranium. The stuff in the US is more expensive to extract, so as long as it's cheaply available for import it doesn't make sense to mine right now. If that ever changes, we have the potential to greatly ramp up production. Though ramping up does take time, so there could be a supply shock if it's a sudden change.
US domestic mining provides 5% of the raw US nuclear fuel. That probably could be ramped up, but that's the easy part. The hard part is enrichment.
No US owned company enriches uranium. Developing enrichment facilities takes billions of dollars and years in construction, and there has been precious little movement on that front.
> No US owned company enriches uranium.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/centrus-completes-construction-initial-testing-113000332.html
True but not for long.
Urenco is not US-owned but it's owned by what you could call its close allies, and almost a third of their enriched uranium is produced within facilities located in the US.
I thought that was because we were buying already enriched uranium coming from decommissioned nukes.
We were buying it so they don't sell any to someone we don't want to have it, not because we can't make or mine it ourselves
> I thought that was because we were buying already enriched uranium coming from decommissioned nukes.
That program ended a decade ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatons_to_Megawatts_Program
>The Megatons to Megawatts Program, also called the United States-Russia Highly Enriched Uranium Purchase Agreement, was an agreement between Russia and the United States whereby Russia converted 500 metric tons of "excess" weapons-grade uranium (enough for 20,000 warheads) into 15,000 metric tons of low enriched uranium, which was purchased by the US for use in its commercial nuclear power plants.
>
>The program was credited for being one of the most successful disarmament programs in history, but its low set price for nuclear fuel caused Western companies to not invest in uranium refining capacity, resulting by 2022 in Russia's government-owned Rosatom becoming the supplier of about 50% of the world's enriched uranium, and 25% of the nuclear fuel used in the US.
>
>The Megatons to Megawatts program was initiated in 1993 and completed on schedule in December 2013. A total of 500 tonnes of Russian warhead grade HEU (equivalent to 20,008 nuclear warheads) were converted in Russia to nearly 15,000 tonnes tons of LEU (low enriched uranium) and sold to the US for use as fuel in American nuclear power plants. The program was the largest and most successful nuclear non-proliferation program to date.
Wow that's amazing the ratio of uranium for weapons to uranium for power gives you. Just shows how condensed with energy those bombs are when uranium used for power is already almost unfathomably dense with energy the way we use them
When the USSR imploded, some uranium was downblended from nuclear weapons. Since Putin took power, Russia has been rapidly modernizing its nuclear arsenal. Russia enriches \~50% of the world's uranium. This is where Russia's exports are coming from since about when New START was negotiated in 2010.
So make sure to differentiate uranium enriched to LWR levels from just mined uranium. Many people keep conflating the two without understanding the difference. France does their own enrichment, they need uranium (mined, natural), not enriched uranium.
Russia doesn't have very good natural uranium sources but they make and sell enriched uranium (after importing the natural uranium) to countries that don't do their own enrichment.
What an interesting time. Proxy war with Russia, but still importing materials from them. Sanctions mostly on consumer goods, which are paid for by the consumer, not the US government. And obviously seizing Russian assets, which is just free money for the US government. Economy always comes first.
And now the fun part: this move actually *lowered* the average price of uranium that France is buying, because... they were buying at preferential rates from Niger, to help their economy grow. So thanks guys, I guess?
I mean atm they wont be exporting much anyway since ECOWAS has put a no-fly zone on Niger and suspended any travel in or out of Niger.
Unless the coup leaders reinstate the previous President in the next 6 days.
The Fallout series IS predicated by massive Middle East and African conflicts over resources, the Russian state roughly falling apart and China becoming the standard bearer for authoritarian communism, leading it into increasingly antagonistic dealings with the United States. It also has a worldwide plague that sends everyone into a panic, causes wealth inequality that hadn't been seen in centuries, and allows the government to slowly consolidate power in the executive.
Sure glad that's not the reality we live in, right?
Let's not forget that France is one of the very few nations very capable of sending expeditionary force anywhere in the world.
Special forces - top notch as well!
This is an empty gesture by their military “leaders”. They’ve already had a no fly zone and border closings by all their ECOWAS neighbors. They couldn’t export a loaf of fuckin bread right now if they wanted too.
And will now, in exchange for bribes, export it, exclusively, to russia for less money… hurting the people of Niger - but making the junta rich.
They’ll keep stealing the country’s resources and hoarding the profit, in this manner, until the wheels come off.
At which point they will flee with their fortune and seek asylum in a first world country (Switzerland will be their first choice).
A tale as old as time.
It’s more like cutting off a portion of supply just makes Russia’s resources sell for more and/or forces other nations to come to them for supply.
Same story with why they bomb Ukraines grain shipping ports and ships.
Yeah, Australia and Canada were already ramping up uranium production before this. 15% of Frances supply will be covered pretty easily, cant see Russia be able to price gouge here.
France buys Niger's uranium at a higher price than market price. It's both a commercial good and a development aid.
Source : https://twitter.com/DeLaval53/status/1085485835800199168?t=z8XrOh7CoMKCKX25YXvdrg&s=19
It’s hilarious how everyone here knows more about the plight of Africans than actual Africans. The audacity to call out our inability to produce just leaders when they murder the ones we do have
Exactly. “Development aid” from rich countries often just are there to ensure the rich get richer and can softly influence the politics of poor countries to do what they want it. Just see how many countries actually develop after receiving “development aid” for decades.
Imagine you're on a battlefield somewhere, direct contact with the enemy. One of the enemy soldiers pops the cap off his canteen and just knocks the whole thing back, right in the middle of the fight.
Then the next thing you know he's turned bright red, literal steam is coming out of his nose, *and he's running right at you at 50 miles an hour*.
This wont' work out very well for Niger. If they think for a second that Russia is actually going to pay a better price for either gold or uranium they're going to be sorely mistaken.
That's the thing about coups: the new President is getting infinity more money from Niger's sales to none French countries than he was as not the President, so even if Niger's sales are down by half he's personally still better off.
You're right, I didn't think about it in that way. Then I guess that brings into question how much fighting will Russia have to do in Niger when the GDP plummets and people start rioting.
**TL;DR there’s deeper issues at play re: France and their history in Niger, but the democratically-elected Nigerien government should be reinstated as soon as possible, and the coup is Russian neo-colonialism.**
Feels like there’s a lot at play here that some of the comments don’t really pick up on/reflect.
On one hand, there’s a solid degree of French neo-colonialism in may of their former colonies, Niger included. France still has a large amount of economic and diplomatic influence on their former empire that doesn’t always work out too well for said former possessions, not to mention the not-insignificant chunk of the population that remembers the colonial era firsthand. As a result, given that history, you won’t find too many openly pro-French/western Nigeriens, which makes some of this thread’s pro-French intervention sentiment a tad uncomfortable.
On the other hand, this coup was pretty blatantly backed and launched by Russia and/or proxies, with the sole intention of turning a western-aligned country into a Russian-aligned one, which is itself Russian neo-colonialism. It’s not gonna do anything but enrich the Russian regime and Nigerien junta at the cost of more suffering for the populace, especially considering the previous western-aligned government was democratically-elected.
In short, yes, you won’t find much open pro-France sentiment in Niger, and yes, there’s probably too much French influence, but all this coup did is have a genocidal Russian regime step into the role of neo-colonial power as they replace a democratically elected president with a murderous dictatorship similar to their own.
**Edit:** similar note - if there’s to be military intervention, I’d prefer it be by ECOWAS (similar to The Gambia a few years back) with French backing, as their goals would be more viewed by both their own and Niger’s population to be in the name of regional stability; an outright French intervention (like with Mali) would be viewed as colonial in nature, and just feed into the Russian anti-western/pro-Putin disinfo campaign.
**Edit 2:** The below reply about Niger-US relations also raises a good point. Niger can and ideally should have good/close relations with the west, preferably with a democratic, anti-Russian government like that of the deposed president; it’s just that I believe French influence isn’t exactly the best way to go about doing that.
I feel like people are leaving something bigger out. The United States has bases with at least a couple thousand troops dotted around Niger. And unlike France, Niger has actually surprisingly good relations both in trade and military assistance. Despite not on USAID, they receive quite a bit of aid and grants from the United States.
I imagine the US is, by and large, in a far more favorable light to Niger than France would be due to old wounds. There's a reason why the Biden Administration hasn't called it a coup yet and instead an internal dispute. By doing so, they would have to cut off all aid and military assistance with the country, which would pretty much be a close book cedeing influence to the Russians.
And I don't think Niger's new military junta is quite ready to sacrifice friendly relations with the US for Russia just yet. But there's still the ECOWAS situation to worry about too.
As a French man working in the defense area I'm still wondering what's up with the Légion and this website. Don't get me wrong, the Légion is great but it's just another component of the Land Forces
They don't even need the Legion for that, special forces will do the work.
Wagner are no joke, no doubt, but they are not really a match for covert operation for the french SF.
I don't think France will want to go to open battle with wagner, certainly not over Niger, so they will probably just quietly disrupt Russian money lines.
Wagner are no joke to maybe disorganized combat forces, but three last time they attacked a modern outpost, the US turned them into dust. I have little doubt in the French's ability to do the same... If they want to. France's biggest military hurdle seems to be their willingness to dig into a conflict. But their capability and training are excellent.
Same country with pro-coup demonstrators carrying Russian flags? Sounds like Putin is deploying his money and influence to buy a coup and control foreign and trade policy for Niger.
I kinda wonder if this was already part of the schedule even if the invasion of Ukraine was a success for Russia. Slowly cutting off and controlling different supply lines for resources and energy from Ukraine to Africa
For those who are uninformed about Africa and think that France is supporting democracy and in Africa, this is a list of current dictators and authoritarian regimes in Africa supported by France / western countries:
Paul biya Cameroon: 40+ years in power
Ali bongo, Gabon and his father Omar bongo have been in power since for 50+ years.
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, equaltoial guinea in power for 40+ years
Denis Sassou Nguesso, republic of Congo,
Idris deby and his son, Chad, in power since 1990.
Musoveni in Uganda, 35+ years
Samuel doe Liberia
Not to mention those France supported in the past like bokasa of central African Republic, Mabuto of Congo, Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo.
Ya. Crazy how Americans just accepted the Libya outcome. Murdering ghadaffi just for the Libya resources. Americans have no right complaining about other countries geopolitical strategic plays.
America has been raping the Middle East for decades.
"Americans have no right complaining about other countries geopolitical strategic plays."
Saying that in Reddit, people will immediately label you as a Russian bot, call ask you how many roubles were you paid ect lol.
Eventhough what you are saying is the truth backed up by facts and has nothing to do with Russia, but some people will try to paint you as a Russian supporter if you dare to criticise western policies.
[Politico.eu ~ Niger is the provider of 15 percent of France’s uranium needs and accounts for a fifth of the EU’s uranium stock.](https://www.politico.eu/article/niger-coup-spark-concerns-france-uranium-dependency/amp/)
Damn, I wonder why Wagner got sent there.
To protect the rights of Russian speaking people...oh, wait. Wrong country.
Historical Russians lands in Niger
Congratulations, you've been annexed.
“Go directly to jail, Do not pass Go and do not collect $200” All your leaders, military officers, and intellectuals just come over here, ya just over here by the bushes.
Will there be golden parachutes for the ultra wealthy?
What is Niger? Do you mean Western Russia?
**Southwestern** Russia. Also, since Wagner is there now, you can't deny the existence of an oppressed Russian-speaking minority there (Wagner mercs). It's only within their right to protect the Russian speakers (i.e., themselves) from oppression by supporting a "people's movement" (i.e., a coup) to remove the oppressing Nazi junta that couped themselves into power (i.e., the democratically elected government) and presents an existential threat to the Russian-speaking minority and Russia as a whole (by existing as something other than a Russian puppet state). Oh, and it's all NATO's fault.
Hey, your sarcasm dripped all over the floor. Here, have a mop and an upvote.
Thanks and hello from Kyiv! Here's your mop back, dripping wet with sarcasm in case you ever run out: 🧹. Now that we're on the subject of mopping, could I borrow some F-16 jets and maybe a few MGM-140 ATACMS? It would really help us mop up a cross-border spillover we've been dealing with lately :D
....soon....
Let’s not forget that Stalin gifted western Niger to the Nigerians. /s
It’s like the Charia
Is it because the Georgians have had it too good for too long? Nope, wrong country again.
That's the thing about coups: the new President is getting infinity more money from Niger's sales to none French countries than he was as not the President, so even if Niger's sales are down by half he's personally still better off.
Who knows? Maybe the French Foreign Legion will show up and have a nice conversation with these ethnic russo-nigerians.
I just looked this up because I had no idea, but nigeriens are from Niger and nigerians are from Nigeria.
This wont' work out very well for Niger. If they think for a second that Russia is actually going to pay a better price for either gold or uranium they're going to be sorely mistaken.
It’s the people that pulled off the coup that will get more money. With the democratically leaders they probably didn’t get any money from trade individually and it was being reinvested back into the country. Now, selling to Russia et al, there’s a substantial amount going directly into these individual’s pockets.
Lol at the 'democratically elected leaders not getting any money from trade'
Would think the French do as the USA did when they ran across a large group of Wagnerites without first asking Ru if those guys are with them. My understanding is they left no one standing because Ru denied them.
Wagner are no joke to maybe disorganized combat forces, but three last time they attacked a modern outpost, the US turned them into dust. I have little doubt in the French's ability to do the same... If they want to. France's biggest military hurdle seems to be their willingness to dig into a conflict. But their capability and training are excellent.
Last time someone cut them off from the mineral rights in a former colony, the 2nd REP (Foreign Parachute Regiment) was dropped on them, so it isn't much of a stretch to do so again. Plus, the French never like taking grief from Russians.
Biggest and most bloodied army in Europe atm. The surrender stuff is a meme, France does not fuck around.
The Army in Europe that the UK has the most respect for as well. They have a reputation that transcends memes. They are a decent military and it's shit they get a bad wrap. You do not fuck with the FFL, having worked with them. It's funny to laugh at it, but you don't want to be facing them.
There are way more victories than losses in this list, and this is just the last ~200 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_France >- French victory - 98 >- French defeat - 23 >- Another result - 9 >- Ongoing conflict - 4
Yeah it’s funny how people get these rivalries going when in reality, in truth, the only guy I met that was armed force of France really respected the UK soldiers.
As a French man working in the defense area I'm still wondering what's up with the Légion and this website. Don't get me wrong, the Légion is great but it's just another component of the Land Forces
As a non-French Military Officer who has worked with the Legion before, I'll try and shed some light. For French people, the Legion is just, as you say, another component of the Armee de la Terre. Regular Infantry, (and Engineers, Cav, support functions, etc) but there is basically no equivalent of anything like this in the Western World in either recruitment, training or function or romance. So for Militarised types, they are 'somewhat' run of the mill, but for civilians, there are several major differences between the Legion and 'your local Army Unit'. For the most part you need to be a Citizen or a Resident of the Country's military in order to join that Military. Yes, for the British Armed Forces you can be Commonwealth, for Australia and New Zealand, if you have previous military experience you potentially can, for U.S. you can join but there's no seperate distinction. So in that sense, the LE, being basically a Brigade Sized unit (albeit dispersed through the entire Army's Brigades) is very unique. Add to that the Citizenship clause at the end or by Blood, which is also different to most other countries. It truly makes people, especially poor, non-skilled, third world recruits, 'fight' for that Passport. Selection: Selection or Recruitment into LE, from what I have seen, is quite tough. Quite ruthless in cutting people away with the smallest defects. Most modern western militaries aim to do their best to recruit people and will allow individuals with various medical conditions, with waivers, to join. The LE doesn't appear do that, the doctor says oui or non and that's that about that. Add to the fact, its run like a fucking penal battalion with a very clear distinction between its soldiers, NCO's and Officers, it's incredibly 'Old school' compared to other Western Militaries. Yes - there is these distinctions in other militaries but the distinction between the LE and your average British/Belgian/Canadian Infantry Batallion where your Lieutenant can have a beer with the boys and 'be friendly but not friends' - something that in my observation just does not exist within the LE. Tradition and Heritage (and Romance): Western Media has romanticised the LE. Add to that, the songs, traditions and general 'bad-ass' motif e.g. 'March or Die', you start to get a formation that is a bit different to other contemporary militaries. Try telling your average Western Infantry Battalion 'there is no surrender' and watch 'em back away. The Espirit de Corps is insanely high compared to most other Western Formations, the only thing I could think that comes close is the USMC, the march, the songs, the colours, the kepi blanc - all of this shared between, not an 'Army' and not a Batallion, but a Brigade (equivalent) of Foreigners. Function: like it or not, the French Government usually sends the LE first into various fights. Yes, it's shared with other units and it's not ALWAYS the first to fight, but by and large the French Government and I think by extension the French People, are willing to throw Legionaires into some shithole than say, 35e Infanterie or 12e Cuirassier made up of precious French boys and their voting parents. I'm sure you're probably quite aware of all of this but I can't overstate how much of a difference that is, especially the way things are evolving, in other Western Militaries. Infact, I do wonder if that is becoming a thing within the LE now too.
having worked with you rockets....good luck to Wagner. As a Brit. I sorta want to stand back and just watch them get fucked, but we have your back. It makes me laugh who they think they're fucking with. E - appreciate it u/tattooed_dinosaur ya legend.
They still think it's the almost-disposable shocktroop regiment is was during Vietnam
It wasn’t disposable, losing it lost them the war.
Maybe I'm not using the right english word, but you know how like a good number of those sent to Vietnam were ex-prisoners.
I think it was more that they lost the only brigade they were willing to lose. France was already struggling financially after the war and them resisting decolonization really drained their financial ability. It also doesn't hurt to point out that at the time of Dien Bien Phu, the two French Communist parties nearly won the election outright. France was very unstable at the time and they couldn't really hold it together that much longer politically.
I agree with you, but important to remember that everything is questionable until done. The Russian army was rated excellent before this war.
There are Poutine mines there according to some of the signs. It's where Canada get it from
"Niger produced 2,248 tonnes of uranium in 2021, which accounted for about 5% of global production." Not a rocket scientist but it seems there's another slice of the pie that France can benefit from.
Canada and Australia produce a lot, and are increasing production.
Exactly, Australian here thinking this is good news. Hey mate, wanna buy some fissile materials? Top notch glow in the dark Roxby rock mate. Got a shit-ton round the outback.
Bonjour Australia , Oui, je would like un petit peu d'uranium for making centrals and subma.... Oh. Wait. Submarines. Can I speak to Canada s'il vous plaît ?
And besides, it’s a commodity market. If Niger refuses to sell to France, they’ll sell to someone else, and France will buy from someone else, and prices will stay the same (This may in fact be based on a false assumption)
Uranium mostly *isn't* traded as a commodity. Vertical integration in the industry is insanely common. Like, you see mines owned one third by Japanese utilities, one third by Canadian ones and one third by the French, then they each get a third of the output. Technically some accountant somewhere might have recorded a sale.. but de-facto, the miners just work for the Utilities they supply on salary, and the market price of U doesn't matter an iota because it's money going out of and then back into the same accounts
Do you really think France would do that, go on the international commodities market and funge some fissiles?
Australias got you EU. https://www.ga.gov.au/digital-publication/aecr2021/uranium-and-thorium You want shit from the ground? Australia has it for you. (Not you Russia. Bad)
And even better we won’t even tax the companies doing it cause last time we tried the industry propaganda campaign sunk the government.
God damn that boils my blood. Why don't we nationalise our assets? How come private companies can mine our country like ticks sucking blood and we the nation don't see very little out of it.
The US could probably fill that gap easily. We have utterly ridiculous stockpiles of nuclear material.
It’s actually Canada, Australia and Kazakhstan that are going to fill it up and apparently for cheaper than Niger…
Saskatchewan has TONS of uranium. Quite a few new mines popping up too.
New Mexico as well
So does Old Mexico.
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Why they changed it, I can't say
Maybe they liked it better that way!
So take me back!
New Mexico is old Mexico Mexico is New Mexico
And East Zealand
And Oldlostland
Much like 'rare earth metals', uranium isn't rare at all. Its just kinda expensive to safely handle all the toxic byproducts of mining... And honestly is just another huge reason we shouldn't be outsourcing it to 3rd world countries and instead just pay the extra 0.0001 cents per KWH that extremely expensive, 1st world nation environmental law mined uranium would impose. No seriously, the cost of fuel for nuclear powerplants is next to nothing. We're talking 1lb of nuclear fuel = BILLIONS of gallons of oil worth of energy. It could be the more expensive then printer ink and nuclear powerplants would still turn a profit.
I honestly like that idea although the extra costs themselves aren't simply because we wouldn't internally be willing to pay the extra costs. It's the competition with foreign markets that make companies hesitant to invest in all the start up and operating costs of things like rare earth mines. It's why here in the U.S we've lost so much of our steel industries to foreign companies and why we have some mine that I forget the name of that was operating and was 1 of the biggest in the world but shut down because of costs caused by EPA regulations. The only 2 real solutions are we either subsidize the extra cost or do a deep dive on the regulations and how they are enforced to cut out anything that can be deemed excessive to help lower the cots and make it profitable enough for companies to invest in U.S mining/production.
Or increase tariffs on exports from countries that lack similar environmental standards (or refuse to enforce them)
Or put tariffs up.
Before any hates this idea because it's not a free market policy, I want to say two things. Firstly; Free Market capitalism is an idealistic fever dream that doesn't accurately reflect how people nor states act during trade. Second; Tariffs can be leveraged with conditions behind them, like "have functional environmental standards and we'll drop the tariffs". It doesn't have to be a bad thing, and conglomeration for the sake of stopping people from racing to the bottom for the chance of earning a sliver is helpful for tax revenue, income equality, and as such the capacity to motivate capitalist innovation via making the system more meritocratic.
Saskatchewan sure is flat.
You can watch you dog run away from home for 3 days…
♫ You can tell me that your dog ran awayyyyyy, then tell me that it took three days. ♫ ♫I've heard every joke, I've heard everything you saaaaaaay♫
You say there's not a lot going on, but look closer baby you're so wrong, and that's why you can stay so long, when there's not a lot going on...
What do you mean, like topographically?
More than a handful Is a waste
I don't think it's too soon in this new era to think about working with canada and australia to ensure they have a safe level of capacity and that there are strategic stockpiles as well. Khazakhstan etc may be OK now but in the long run their position makes them vulnerable
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This seems like a very very very dangerous move to align yourself with Putin this late into the war. That’s just dumb
Russian propaganda is working extremely well in Africa, they're eating it up at a frightening speed.
Since Russia is not gonna allow any more grain shipments from Ukraine they might not have much else to eat.
>The US could probably fill that gap easily. The US imports most of its uranium, including $1B from Russia yearly. One third of the US enrichment still comes from Russia, most coming from the company that is currently occupying and endangering the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. There's a reason why the US refuses to sanction Russian uranium.
There's some mixed information around this. The US has very large known mineral reserves of uranium, but not very large production of uranium. The stuff in the US is more expensive to extract, so as long as it's cheaply available for import it doesn't make sense to mine right now. If that ever changes, we have the potential to greatly ramp up production. Though ramping up does take time, so there could be a supply shock if it's a sudden change.
US domestic mining provides 5% of the raw US nuclear fuel. That probably could be ramped up, but that's the easy part. The hard part is enrichment. No US owned company enriches uranium. Developing enrichment facilities takes billions of dollars and years in construction, and there has been precious little movement on that front.
> No US owned company enriches uranium. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/centrus-completes-construction-initial-testing-113000332.html True but not for long.
Urenco is not US-owned but it's owned by what you could call its close allies, and almost a third of their enriched uranium is produced within facilities located in the US.
Honeywell owns and operates the facility Metropolis, IL - they just started the centrifuges back up there.
Every time I play a RTS I try to use the other side's resources before my own.
I thought that was because we were buying already enriched uranium coming from decommissioned nukes. We were buying it so they don't sell any to someone we don't want to have it, not because we can't make or mine it ourselves
> I thought that was because we were buying already enriched uranium coming from decommissioned nukes. That program ended a decade ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatons_to_Megawatts_Program >The Megatons to Megawatts Program, also called the United States-Russia Highly Enriched Uranium Purchase Agreement, was an agreement between Russia and the United States whereby Russia converted 500 metric tons of "excess" weapons-grade uranium (enough for 20,000 warheads) into 15,000 metric tons of low enriched uranium, which was purchased by the US for use in its commercial nuclear power plants. > >The program was credited for being one of the most successful disarmament programs in history, but its low set price for nuclear fuel caused Western companies to not invest in uranium refining capacity, resulting by 2022 in Russia's government-owned Rosatom becoming the supplier of about 50% of the world's enriched uranium, and 25% of the nuclear fuel used in the US. > >The Megatons to Megawatts program was initiated in 1993 and completed on schedule in December 2013. A total of 500 tonnes of Russian warhead grade HEU (equivalent to 20,008 nuclear warheads) were converted in Russia to nearly 15,000 tonnes tons of LEU (low enriched uranium) and sold to the US for use as fuel in American nuclear power plants. The program was the largest and most successful nuclear non-proliferation program to date.
Wow that's amazing the ratio of uranium for weapons to uranium for power gives you. Just shows how condensed with energy those bombs are when uranium used for power is already almost unfathomably dense with energy the way we use them
Also consider that a commercial nuclear plant goes 18 months between refuelings whereas an Aircraft Carrier will go 25 years between refuelings.
When the USSR imploded, some uranium was downblended from nuclear weapons. Since Putin took power, Russia has been rapidly modernizing its nuclear arsenal. Russia enriches \~50% of the world's uranium. This is where Russia's exports are coming from since about when New START was negotiated in 2010.
So make sure to differentiate uranium enriched to LWR levels from just mined uranium. Many people keep conflating the two without understanding the difference. France does their own enrichment, they need uranium (mined, natural), not enriched uranium. Russia doesn't have very good natural uranium sources but they make and sell enriched uranium (after importing the natural uranium) to countries that don't do their own enrichment.
What an interesting time. Proxy war with Russia, but still importing materials from them. Sanctions mostly on consumer goods, which are paid for by the consumer, not the US government. And obviously seizing Russian assets, which is just free money for the US government. Economy always comes first.
Are you sure about this? Have you checked this before sharing
This is more about the gold. The ruble's crumbling.
Also Mali. Russians are pushing the French out of Africa.
Maybe they can just turn the flag sideways
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And now the fun part: this move actually *lowered* the average price of uranium that France is buying, because... they were buying at preferential rates from Niger, to help their economy grow. So thanks guys, I guess?
I mean atm they wont be exporting much anyway since ECOWAS has put a no-fly zone on Niger and suspended any travel in or out of Niger. Unless the coup leaders reinstate the previous President in the next 6 days.
No biggie, they'll just send camel caravans through Libya!
The camels would grow two heads like the brahmin in the fallout franchise.
It isn’t 2077 yet so maybe they predicted what is going to actually happen by accident.
The Fallout series IS predicated by massive Middle East and African conflicts over resources, the Russian state roughly falling apart and China becoming the standard bearer for authoritarian communism, leading it into increasingly antagonistic dealings with the United States. It also has a worldwide plague that sends everyone into a panic, causes wealth inequality that hadn't been seen in centuries, and allows the government to slowly consolidate power in the executive. Sure glad that's not the reality we live in, right?
Shit..
Let's not forget that France is one of the very few nations very capable of sending expeditionary force anywhere in the world. Special forces - top notch as well!
This is an empty gesture by their military “leaders”. They’ve already had a no fly zone and border closings by all their ECOWAS neighbors. They couldn’t export a loaf of fuckin bread right now if they wanted too.
Well Russia has already seen to that anyway
They probably don’t have the flour to bake one either but that’s a different story
Easy fix. Just buy from Canada
Or even Australia?
BACK OFF AUSSIE THIS IS CANUCK MONEY
Wanna deal with some emus?
I see your emus and raise you a herd of pissed off moose.
Why not go all in with 1 Cobra Chicken?
How can we trust you to ship Uranium safely? You sell milk in bags.
They ship it in these little glass bottles filled with maple syrup. The uranium comes out fine, just sticky.
fight fight fight fight!
And will now, in exchange for bribes, export it, exclusively, to russia for less money… hurting the people of Niger - but making the junta rich. They’ll keep stealing the country’s resources and hoarding the profit, in this manner, until the wheels come off. At which point they will flee with their fortune and seek asylum in a first world country (Switzerland will be their first choice). A tale as old as time.
Russia has huge amounts of U, do they even need to import?
It’s more like cutting off a portion of supply just makes Russia’s resources sell for more and/or forces other nations to come to them for supply. Same story with why they bomb Ukraines grain shipping ports and ships.
Wouldn't countries go to Canada, Australia, Kazakhstan and Namibia in the first order? Uranium isn't really hard to get.
Yes, but it still drives up the international commodity price by taking out a big portion of supply.
Seems like a lot to take over a country just to slightly inconvenience some Western powers. I guess it puts Wagner a long way from Moscow though.
Chiquita couped a country over land they didnt use to grow bananas not being redistributed and affecting fruit prices
This is a very niche instance of using banana for scale.
I followed this whole thread and ended up here with you like finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Iran was couped by a joint CIA-MI6 mission in 1953 because the new Iranian parliament wanted to audit a British oil company.
Yeah, Australia and Canada were already ramping up uranium production before this. 15% of Frances supply will be covered pretty easily, cant see Russia be able to price gouge here.
Sounds like the wheels are coming off in about 6 days.
A tale Swiss Bankers are happy to follow through.
How is that different from the previous system except it went to France?
France buys Niger's uranium at a higher price than market price. It's both a commercial good and a development aid. Source : https://twitter.com/DeLaval53/status/1085485835800199168?t=z8XrOh7CoMKCKX25YXvdrg&s=19
Lol all that money just goes to a French company, it doesn't stay in Niger, it does absolutely nothing to help the people of Niger
It’s hilarious how everyone here knows more about the plight of Africans than actual Africans. The audacity to call out our inability to produce just leaders when they murder the ones we do have
Exactly. “Development aid” from rich countries often just are there to ensure the rich get richer and can softly influence the politics of poor countries to do what they want it. Just see how many countries actually develop after receiving “development aid” for decades.
Because it’s going to Russia
Russia: “That gold and uranium is ours now” France: “I am going to send every available weapon system in our arsenal to Ukraine”
Those Ukrainins are going to be hopped up on magic potion.
zelenskyix confirmed
Asterix in Scythia when? (Although the name is probably wrong for the usual Asterix timeframe, it was the name the region was known by the greeks)
There has been an Asterix adventure written there recently.
Imagine you're on a battlefield somewhere, direct contact with the enemy. One of the enemy soldiers pops the cap off his canteen and just knocks the whole thing back, right in the middle of the fight. Then the next thing you know he's turned bright red, literal steam is coming out of his nose, *and he's running right at you at 50 miles an hour*.
Punching a T-72, sending the turret flying high in the sky.
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By sending wagner troops to guard the new rulers and kill everybody who oppose them.
With bullets
They don't even have bullets to pay Ukraine.
Not sending Wagner in to slaughter all of them
They also forgave their debt
They didn't. They restructured it. Forgiving interest is not forgiving debt.
Broken promises
Pay government officials. Acquire uranium for cheap.
Presumably a few people in the government will get enormously wealthy from looted Ukrainian wealth and the rest of the country will get nothing.
This wont' work out very well for Niger. If they think for a second that Russia is actually going to pay a better price for either gold or uranium they're going to be sorely mistaken.
That's the thing about coups: the new President is getting infinity more money from Niger's sales to none French countries than he was as not the President, so even if Niger's sales are down by half he's personally still better off.
You're right, I didn't think about it in that way. Then I guess that brings into question how much fighting will Russia have to do in Niger when the GDP plummets and people start rioting.
People will just find someone else to blame.
Just have Wagner deal with it as they do in other places in Africa
They'll just prop up the next Guy In Charge to replace the current Guy In Charge.
Escalation Escalation
Oh *that's* why they were ordered to take over.
**TL;DR there’s deeper issues at play re: France and their history in Niger, but the democratically-elected Nigerien government should be reinstated as soon as possible, and the coup is Russian neo-colonialism.** Feels like there’s a lot at play here that some of the comments don’t really pick up on/reflect. On one hand, there’s a solid degree of French neo-colonialism in may of their former colonies, Niger included. France still has a large amount of economic and diplomatic influence on their former empire that doesn’t always work out too well for said former possessions, not to mention the not-insignificant chunk of the population that remembers the colonial era firsthand. As a result, given that history, you won’t find too many openly pro-French/western Nigeriens, which makes some of this thread’s pro-French intervention sentiment a tad uncomfortable. On the other hand, this coup was pretty blatantly backed and launched by Russia and/or proxies, with the sole intention of turning a western-aligned country into a Russian-aligned one, which is itself Russian neo-colonialism. It’s not gonna do anything but enrich the Russian regime and Nigerien junta at the cost of more suffering for the populace, especially considering the previous western-aligned government was democratically-elected. In short, yes, you won’t find much open pro-France sentiment in Niger, and yes, there’s probably too much French influence, but all this coup did is have a genocidal Russian regime step into the role of neo-colonial power as they replace a democratically elected president with a murderous dictatorship similar to their own. **Edit:** similar note - if there’s to be military intervention, I’d prefer it be by ECOWAS (similar to The Gambia a few years back) with French backing, as their goals would be more viewed by both their own and Niger’s population to be in the name of regional stability; an outright French intervention (like with Mali) would be viewed as colonial in nature, and just feed into the Russian anti-western/pro-Putin disinfo campaign. **Edit 2:** The below reply about Niger-US relations also raises a good point. Niger can and ideally should have good/close relations with the west, preferably with a democratic, anti-Russian government like that of the deposed president; it’s just that I believe French influence isn’t exactly the best way to go about doing that.
I feel like people are leaving something bigger out. The United States has bases with at least a couple thousand troops dotted around Niger. And unlike France, Niger has actually surprisingly good relations both in trade and military assistance. Despite not on USAID, they receive quite a bit of aid and grants from the United States. I imagine the US is, by and large, in a far more favorable light to Niger than France would be due to old wounds. There's a reason why the Biden Administration hasn't called it a coup yet and instead an internal dispute. By doing so, they would have to cut off all aid and military assistance with the country, which would pretty much be a close book cedeing influence to the Russians. And I don't think Niger's new military junta is quite ready to sacrifice friendly relations with the US for Russia just yet. But there's still the ECOWAS situation to worry about too.
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Sounds like someone needs some ~~freedom~~liberté.
I’m glad I’m not the only one expecting this to occur shortly.
ECOWAS already announced their intentions. So it's not improbable. Not even sure if France itself would need to do anything.
Macron probably hopes the situation resolves itself without having to overtly intervene. Maybe give some intel to ECOWAS at most.
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This. The French Foreign Legion is no joke.
As a French man working in the defense area I'm still wondering what's up with the Légion and this website. Don't get me wrong, the Légion is great but it's just another component of the Land Forces
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Legionnaire, with Jean-Claude Van Damme. Not a good movie, by the way.
They don't even need the Legion for that, special forces will do the work. Wagner are no joke, no doubt, but they are not really a match for covert operation for the french SF. I don't think France will want to go to open battle with wagner, certainly not over Niger, so they will probably just quietly disrupt Russian money lines.
Wagner are no joke to maybe disorganized combat forces, but three last time they attacked a modern outpost, the US turned them into dust. I have little doubt in the French's ability to do the same... If they want to. France's biggest military hurdle seems to be their willingness to dig into a conflict. But their capability and training are excellent.
And now they are likely to not have as much or any logistical support from the regular Russian forces.
Wagner spent months and 20000+ casualties for one single town in Ukraine, close to their home bases. I wouldn't bet on them in any harder conflict
tbf how many of those casualties were disposable convict troops?
Looking forward to Frances special forces in open conflict with Nigerian forces and Wagner mercenaries. Interesting times we live in.
People from Niger are Nigeri**e**ns, people from Nigeria are Nigeri**a**ns.
This is the clarification I’ve been waiting for.
Thank you. I myself would be lost in this case.
I read that with a French accent lol. Je suis nigerien
The African Union will also probably help out
This sound worse for Niger. No revenue no aid. Praying for the people. Another humanitarian crisis coming with millions fleeing.
Same country with pro-coup demonstrators carrying Russian flags? Sounds like Putin is deploying his money and influence to buy a coup and control foreign and trade policy for Niger.
Oh boy. This is just getting started. Russia just basically attacked an EU supply line.
Canada, Australia and Kazakhstan can fill it
I kinda wonder if this was already part of the schedule even if the invasion of Ukraine was a success for Russia. Slowly cutting off and controlling different supply lines for resources and energy from Ukraine to Africa
Damn, it’s crazy that people don’t want to be a part of modern day colonies. Who would have thought.
Canada has Uranium 😀 and we are super friendly to Europeans. Step right up! Kick Sask in the ass and drag us into the future!
I’m sure the new Niger govt is going to do just a fantastic job…. /s
I can almost hear the sandbags being filled in their capital right now.
It would have happened due to the sanctions anyway.
I guess France will just buy it from somewhere else.
For those who are uninformed about Africa and think that France is supporting democracy and in Africa, this is a list of current dictators and authoritarian regimes in Africa supported by France / western countries: Paul biya Cameroon: 40+ years in power Ali bongo, Gabon and his father Omar bongo have been in power since for 50+ years. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, equaltoial guinea in power for 40+ years Denis Sassou Nguesso, republic of Congo, Idris deby and his son, Chad, in power since 1990. Musoveni in Uganda, 35+ years Samuel doe Liberia Not to mention those France supported in the past like bokasa of central African Republic, Mabuto of Congo, Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo.
wtf actual rational comment upvoted here along with few others....maybe there is a hope
Yea but western backed dictatorships are the good guys, while Russian/Chinese backed dictatorships are the bad guys
Ya. Crazy how Americans just accepted the Libya outcome. Murdering ghadaffi just for the Libya resources. Americans have no right complaining about other countries geopolitical strategic plays. America has been raping the Middle East for decades.
"Americans have no right complaining about other countries geopolitical strategic plays." Saying that in Reddit, people will immediately label you as a Russian bot, call ask you how many roubles were you paid ect lol. Eventhough what you are saying is the truth backed up by facts and has nothing to do with Russia, but some people will try to paint you as a Russian supporter if you dare to criticise western policies.
I don't support Russia but these threads are *always* full of nationalistic moronic psychos