The conflict between Algeria and Spain does not seem to have a clear and immediate solution. Despite the intentions of the Maghreb country to guarantee trade, the suspension of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with our country worries many sectors of the European Union and there is already talk of retaliation if the relationship with Madrid is not restored.
As explained from Algiers, this problem is motivated by Spain’s support for the Moroccan position on the Sahara. They assure that it is nothing more than a bilateral “political disagreement”, which has nothing to do with the country’s commercial commitments with the European Union.
[The crisis in Algeria alarms the EU and asks Spain to resolve it]
However, despite Algeria’s anger at Spain’s change of position, some experts in International Relations explain that this is nothing more than an excuse: “It really cares little about Western Sahara, it tries to gain a position on the issue of gas”, explained Alberto Priego, professor of International Relations at the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, on the program ‘Todo es lie’.
Many experts on the Maghreb issue have also pointed out that this move by Algeria could even be orchestrated by Russia.
But what role does the government of Vladimir Putin have in this conflict between Spain and Algiers? This is all we know about the relationship between Algeria and Russia.
The good relations that exist between Russia and Algeria are not a secret to anyone. This is demonstrated by the recent visits to Algiers by the Russian Foreign Minister, Serguei Lavrov, and the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro.
Some contacts that have not gone unnoticed by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is how the journalist Ignacio Cembrero relates it in El Confidencial, who explains that, after José Manuel Albares’s trip to Brussels, the Spanish minister stated that “they had given him information that Algeria had been pushed by Russia to attack Spain.”
Without much concrete data, Albares stressed that the objective of Putin’s pressure was nothing more than “breaking the European Union from the south, confronting Spain with Italy.” Something that was also confirmed by Alberto Priego, who revealed that “Russia has been trying to establish itself in the southern Mediterranean for a long time” and that the objective could also be to obtain a base in Algeria: “What Russia is doing is surrounding Europe from the south.”
These indications, however, do not confirm that Russia is really behind this conflict between Spain and Algeria. In fact, some experts recall that, despite the good relations between Russia and Algiers, everything seems to be a direct consequence of the new Spanish position, closer to Morocco, on Western Sahara.
[From «reliable partner» to «extraordinary relationship»: what Sánchez and Albares said about Algeria before the disagreement]
