Russia hails new ‘world order taking shape’ as Putin prepares Africa summit

Russia’s ambassador to the United States said Newsweek that Moscow is preparing to strengthen strategic ties with African nations under an emerging new international order as President Vladimir Putin prepares to host most of the continent’s leaders for a summit later this week.

The rally will come amid Western accusations that Russia is rigging food exports after Moscow pulled out of a grain deal and hit Ukrainian ports in a war that has just entered its 18th month.

“Russia has rich and long-standing relations with African countries,” said Ambassador Anatoly Antonov Newsweek. “Today we intend to give an extra push to these ties and raise them to a whole new level.”

This idea, he argued, “is behind the Second Russia-Africa Summit, which will be held on July 27-28 in St. Petersburg,” the second of its kind since the first event took place in October 2019 in Sochi. Since then, Russia has maintained strong ties across much of Africa, even as a largely Western coalition of nations backing Kiev seeks to isolate Moscow on the world stage.

The upcoming summit will serve as an opportunity to highlight Russia’s staying power in this part of the Global South amid a shift in a broader shift in global geopolitics.

“We look forward to developing the mutually beneficial strategic partnership with the countries of the continent at a time when a multipolar world order is taking shape,” Antonov said.

While they are far from the front lines of the conflict raging in Ukraine, many African nations have been directly affected by the war. Russia and Ukraine together account for nearly a third of global exports of critical grains such as wheat and barley, deliveries of which have been disrupted by active fighting in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia.

An agreement reached a year ago under the auspices of Turkey and the United Nations, through which a rare mutual purchase was secured by Moscow and Kiev, allowed grain exports from Ukrainian ports to resume. However, Russia denounced the deal last week, arguing that the deal did not sufficiently allow Russia to export its own food and fertilizer as a result of ongoing sanctions.

In a statement published on the Kremlin website and shared with Newsweek from the Russian embassy in the United States on Sunday, Putin denounced this rationale and argued that the initiative ended up being “shamelessly used solely to enrich large American and European businesses that exported and resold grain from Ukraine” rather than serving its original humanitarian purpose.

The Russian leader also offered to replace Ukrainian supply with Russian exports as food security is set to be a major issue in St Petersburg.

“I want to give assurances that our country is able to replace Ukrainian grain both on a commercial and free basis, especially as we expect new record harvests this year,” Putin said. “Despite the sanctions, Russia will continue its vigorous efforts to provide supplies of grain, food, fertilizer and other goods to Africa.”

Putin also took the opportunity to highlight growing ties with African countries, citing a number of initiatives in trade, education and other areas, while noting that “the potential of our trade and economic cooperation is much greater.” He noted possible cooperation “in the field of high technologies and geological exploration, in the fuel and energy complex, including nuclear power, in the chemical industry, mining and transport engineering, agriculture and fisheries.”

He spoke of his government’s efforts “to prepare an impressive package of intergovernmental and interagency agreements and memoranda with individual states as well as regional associations of the continent” at the upcoming summit.

And he also referred to the rise of “a new multipolar world order”, which he said “will be fairer and more democratic”. He argued that “there is no doubt that Africa, along with Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, will take its rightful place and finally free itself from the bitter legacy of colonialism and neo-colonialism, rejecting its modern practices.”

Newsweek Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has been contacted for comment.

African countries have also stepped up their diplomacy around the ongoing conflict. As previewed by Newsweeka delegation of six African heads of state from Egypt, the Republic of Congo, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia traveled to Moscow and Kiev last month in an effort to advance Russia-Ukraine peace talks.

Weeks earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also appeared in South Africa along with the African country’s foreign minister and top diplomats from Brazil, China and India for a BRICS ministerial meeting. Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev also traveled to South Africa to attend the economic quintet’s security meeting on Monday, when he accused the West of using “any means – from unilateral sanctions to waging hybrid wars – in an attempt to maintain its hegemonic global position”.

But it would again be Lavrov who represented Russia in person at the BRICS leader’s summit next month, with Putin appearing via video link amid a row over whether South Africa would be legally bound to arrest Putin under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant issued in March on war crimes charges related to the war in Ukraine.

South Africa and Ukraine are parties to the ICC’s founding Rome statue, while neither Russia nor the US are. However, Washington welcomed the ICC ruling and has increasingly criticized Moscow’s incursion into Africa, including on security matters.

Russia’s security cooperation in Africa has been highlighted not only by formal bilateral agreements but also by the presence of the Wagner Group, headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin. While the private military company’s future remains uncertain after Prigozhin’s failed coup last month, US officials have accused Russia and the Wagner Group of influencing Mali’s decision to withdraw consent for UN peacekeepers weeks later.

Mali is one of several nations where growing support for Russia has come amid growing frustration with the presence of Western powers, particularly France, which is increasingly withdrawing its troops from the continent.

A spokesman for the US State Department said a request for comment had been made Newsweek that “African officials attending the summit should call on Russia to prevent further Wagner abuses against Africans, return to the Black Sea Grains Initiative (BSGI) and end the war it unilaterally started.”

“Summit participants are already well aware of the direct negative effects of Moscow’s brutal war against Ukraine and Russia’s withdrawal from BSGI, such as higher prices and less food for vulnerable populations in Africa,” the State Department spokesman said. “They should be skeptical of any promises Moscow makes, especially given its failure to follow through on so many since the last summit in 2019.”

On the subject of potential diplomacy, the State Department spokesman confirmed the position of President Joe Biden’s administration, which mandated that “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” be discussed. Therefore, when it comes to diplomatic initiatives, the State Department spokesman said that “we encourage countries, including African countries, to engage directly with Ukraine, up to and including visits to Ukraine, to hear Ukraine’s perspective and to witness the impact of Russia’s war.”

The State Department spokesman also argued that “Russia’s predatory actions go beyond its invasion of Ukraine, a clear violation of the UN Charter, to its malign influence operations targeting African countries,” echoing accusations of alleged human rights abuses by the Wagner Group.

“Russia’s withdrawal from BSGI and strikes on the port of Odesa, on grain warehouses along the Danube and on Ukraine’s agricultural lands in the east show that it is not interested in moving grain to countries that need it most,” the State Department spokesman said. “The best thing Russia could do for Africa’s food security is to end these attacks and go back and fully implement the Black Sea Initiative (BSGI), which helped address a problem created by Russia and Russia alone.”

“Instead, Russia initially obstructed and has now unilaterally withdrawn from the BSGI,” the State Department spokesman added. “As was starkly demonstrated last year, this will further exacerbate food price inflation and insecurity in African countries and around the world.”

It is not the first time that Moscow and Washington have exchanged jabs about Africa.

When Russian ambassador and head of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Oleg Ozerov said Newsweek In May of “unprecedented momentum” in tightening Russia-Africa relations, a State Department spokesman said US officials were “confident that our partners will see through Russia’s cynical disinformation efforts and focus on the lost lives and misery that Russia’s senseless war has caused both the people of Ukraine and war-vulnerable Ukraine s”.

But like Ozerov and Antonov, Putin expressed his own belief that Moscow’s message would resonate at the upcoming gathering in St. Petersburg.

“I look forward to welcoming African leaders to St. Petersburg and being engaged in a fruitful constructive dialogue,” Putin said in a statement on Sunday. “I firmly believe that the decisions adopted at the Summit and the Forum, combined with continued diversified joint work will contribute to the further development of the Russian-African strategic partnership for the benefit of our countries and peoples.”

This article has been updated to include comments made by a spokesperson for the US State Department received after publication.