Togo's Faure Gnassingbé walks a diplomatic tightrope between Russia and France

As some West African nations choose to cement old ties with France or a new ally in Russia, Togo wants both.

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As the 7 December attempted military coup in Benin collapsed, the rebels' leader, Lt Col Pascal Tigri, made his discreet escape, apparently over the border into neighbouring Togo. From this temporary refuge, it seems he was then able to travel on to a more secure offer of asylum elsewhere - probably in the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou, or Niamey in Niger.

The opacity surrounding Togo's rumoured role in this affair is typical of a country that, under the leadership of Faure Gnassingbé, knows how to extract the maximum diplomatic leverage by defying convention and cultivating relations with a variety of often competing international partners.

The Lomé regime is far too shrewd to be caught out openly supporting a challenge to Benin's President Patrice Talon – with whom its relations are guarded at best – or officially confirming the Béninois belief that it secured coup-leader Tigri's passage to safety. Both governments are members of the beleaguered Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).

Yet Gnassingbé makes no secret of cultivating affable and supportive relations with Burkina Faso and the fellow Sahelian military governments in Niger and Mali – all three of whom walked out of Ecowas last January.