The Role of the Russians in the Central African Republic

I first became aware of them with their activities in the Central African Republic when the mayhem broke up there a few years ago and the EU started sending in troops. It was just not an area of interest to any US publication, generally stories in Africa are very hard to sell. So what was their role there? And historically, it's been, there's always been a French presence there, but it's always been where there's been quite a bit of conflict around us.