THE EAST AFRICAN
Summary
- Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa was given a “free” helicopter to help him travel around the country.
- A deeper look at Russia’s involvement in Africa shows that the summit is mainly a symbolic event to signal the strengthening of ties, and to acknowledge Russia’s presence in the continent.
- US Permanent Representative to Nato, labelled Russia among the “two main threats facing the Nato Alliance”.
- Putin has not fulfilled the promises he made during the earlier Russia-Africa summit in 2019, where Moscow promised $40 billion worth of investments to the continent.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was this week shaking hands with and hugging African leaders, labelling them friends, a partial show of the continent’s ties with Moscow in the wake of Western isolation after invading Ukraine last year.
And the gathering, the second Russia-Africa Summit in four years, came with significant imagery: The ongoing food crisis in Africa, and Russia’s war in Ukraine, seemed like a perfect combination for influence peddling.
On Thursday, Moscow offered free grain to six poor African countries and promised to stabilise supplies to other needy states.
Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea will receive “free” food from Russia, shipped directly to their borders.
Somalia had their decades-old $684 million debt owed to Moscow forgiven in a deal penned on Wednesday. The money was owed before Somalia collapsed more than three decades ago.
But the gesture could reflect Russia’s use of every opportunity to cement ties with a restless Africa.
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who faces a general election in three weeks, was given a “free” helicopter to help him travel around the country.
Back in St Petersburg, President Putin spoke to his guests as “friends” and told them of his intent to improve grain supplies to the continent.
“Russia will always be a responsible international supplier of agricultural products. We will continue to support the countries and regions most in need.
“We will supply them with our grain and other food products, including free of charge and within the framework of the UN World Food Programme,” Mr Putin argued.
Mutual ties
At the gala reception hosted in honour of the participants of the second Russia–Africa Summit, President Putin told the leaders that their coming illustrates the mutual desire of Russia and African countries to expand and deepen mutually “beneficial ties and contacts.”
“This is also a real confirmation of our common intentions to take Russia-Africa relations to a new, more advanced level in politics, security, in the economic and social spheres.”
In the past, he argued, the Soviet Union rendered African nations “tangible support in the struggle against colonialism, racism and apartheid…”
Today, he said, Russia and the African countries stand together for the formation of “a just, multipolar world order based on the principles of sovereign equality of states, non-interference in their internal affairs, and respect for peoples’ right to determine their own destiny.”
Putin spoke to the leaders – among them Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Comoros President and African Union chair Azali Assoumani, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Evariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi, the current chair of the East African Community, among others.
