I knew of the French neocolonial empire because I saw a video about it, but unfortunately, my understanding of neocolonialism is relegated to the book by someone I read several months ago (and it did bore me a little because it droned on a lot with statistics).

Better Russia than France, that is for sure. I hope the African countries can throw off the fetters of neocolonialism and become independent some day (because being under neocolonial rule is hardly independent).