How the U.S. fumbled Niger’s coup and gave Russia an opening A week of missteps and communication breakdowns pushed an important American ally toward the Kremlin Niger’s president hid behind a bulletproof door of his official residence and talked over a phone he assumed was monitored. To anxious French and American allies, he repeated assurances that the army would soon rescue him from an unfolding coup. Outside the ground floor safe room Mohamed Bazoum had recently renovated to protect himself from such an event, mutineers from his presidential guard fanned out...