Putin Humiliates Tebboune and Chengriha, Replaces Them with Haftar and Burkina Faso
On the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory, Vladimir Putin gathered more than twenty heads of state around him: Xi Jinping, Lula da Silva, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Miguel Díaz-Canel, Nicolás Maduro, Ibrahim Traoré, Mahmoud Abbas , even Khalifa Haftar. All were invited, all were received. All, except Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Soviet victory, Russia welcomed a wide range of heads of state and high dignitaries from the four corners of the globe: Belarus, Cuba, Venezuela, Vietnam and Serbia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Slovakia, Libya, Burkina Faso, Palestine, Mongolia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Indonesia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Myanmar, Israel, India, Ethiopia and Malaysia.
For a regime that bet its entire foreign policy on allegiance to Moscow (see our article: Five Proofs the Algerian Military Regime is a Puppet of Russia) , repeated abstentions at the UN, tens of billions poured into faulty Russian weapons, and diplomatic flattery going so far as Tebboune calling Putin a “friend of humanity” , this cold silence is more than a snub. It’s not an oversight. It’s a rejection. A delisting. The Kremlin no longer considers Algeria useful or reliable. More compliant regimes , Ouagadougou, Bamako, Benghazi , have taken its place. Worse still, Moscow openly displays its preference for Haftar, a direct rival to Algeria’s ambitions in Libya. Even as a vassal, Algeria is now deemed obsolete.
The Kremlin hosted a meeting between the Russian president and the supreme commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
This wasn’t accidental. It signals a clear rejection. The Kremlin has pivoted to more pliable partners: Ouagadougou, Bamako, Benghazi. These regimes offer bases, host Wagner, and follow orders without condition. Algeria, by contrast, offers neither military access nor diplomatic flexibility. It refuses Wagner, fears Russian advisors, and blocks deeper integration. Even Syria, shattered by war, ceded its airspace and territory to Moscow. Algeria offers symbolic visits and empty speeches. Officially neutral, it begs the Kremlin behind closed doors. After Assad’s fall, Algerian intelligence ran to Moscow in a panic, exposing its dependency and lack of preparation. That episode damaged their credibility in the Kremlin’s eyes.
Saïd Chengriha and Abdelmadjid Tebboune, trapped in outdated Soviet logic, overestimated their importance and underestimated how easily they could be replaced. Obsessed with Morocco and the Polisario issue, paralyzed by their own illegitimacy and the population’s indifference, they have racked up a series of strategic mistakes since 2020 that are now irreversible. They pushed for BRICS membership while offering no economy, no technology, no geopolitical leverage , just tired slogans. Putin doesn’t want symbols; he wants tools. Algeria is seen as dead weight.
The Algerian regime sought to position itself as a regional arbiter. It is now obsolete. Even its former patrons no longer see it as dependable.
The message is unambiguous: the Algerian regime no longer matters.
Abderrahmane Fares.
