Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday promised Moscow’s “total support” for Africa, at a conference with African officials in Sochi in southwest Russia.
Putin said Russia could help countries with “sustainable development, the struggle against terrorism and extremism.
Our country will continue to provide total support to our African friends in different sectors,” Putin said in a speech read out by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to other foreign ministers and senior officials.
Putin said Russia could help countries with “sustainable development, the struggle against terrorism and extremism, combating epidemics, food problems and the consequences of natural disasters”
The conference taking place on Saturday and Sunday comes after two Russia-Africa summits in 2019 and 2023.
Putin’s speech underlined this point.
“I would like to reiterate that our country will continue to provide total support to our African friends in different sectors: ensuring sustainable development, the struggle against terrorism and extremism, combating epidemics, food problems and the consequences of natural disasters,” it said.
Emanuela Del Re, the EU special representative for the Sahel region of West Africa, told the BBC the West needed to accept the shifting sands of allegiances.
While Russia was “certainly a very malicious actor”, the Italian diplomat explained it had a strong bond with Africa going back to before independence and was not alone in its interest in the Sahel.
“It’s largely a desert but in reality the region is very crowded: because at the moment you see Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran… all member states of the EU and the UK,” she said.
In fact, African leaders were pragmatic about their need to “diversify their partnerships”, Ms Del Re said, adding it was not a time for the EU to abandon what she called the “three difficult countries” of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which have all experienced coups in recent years.
Her point was that it should not be seen as a competition.
Rwanda, which has strong ties with the UK and the West, is one of several African countries that have already signed deals with Moscow to get help building a nuclear power plant.
Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe, who is also in Sochi, told the AFP news agency hundreds of Rwandan students had graduated from Russian universities, including “those who specialise in nuclear science”.
“We hope to be able to train a certain number of scientific managers specialising in this field,” he added.
Five years ago, Putin promised to double trade with Africa – this has not happened.
But using other means, which the West sees as destabilising the continent, Russia’s influence has grown significantly.
