What message did Vladimir Putin send to African countries?

On the eve of the Russia-Africa summit scheduled for July 2728 in St. Petersburg, an article by Russian President Vladimir Putin titled Russia and Africa: Joining Efforts for Peace, Progress and a Successful Future was published on the Kremlin’s website and in foreign media, according to Financial and Business Vedomosti reporters Vladimirb Kulagin and G.

According to Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, the article was published in the media of 25 countries – among them Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Guinea, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Congo, Mauritius, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Namibia , South Africa, Africa, Seychelles. Chad Central African Republic

We also do not exclude that it will be published in other countries in a few days, we are waiting for confirmation. Therefore, it is widely dispersed throughout the African continent, Peskov said.

The President recalled the Soviet experience in helping the development of Africa, expressed his support for the sovereignty of African states, emphasizing that Moscow strictly adheres to the principle of “African problems – an African solution”. A significant part of the article was devoted to the recent events surrounding the grain agreement. Putin emphasized that it did not bring any special results.

In almost a year, under the agreement with Ukraine, a total of 32.8 million tons of cargo was exported, of which more than 70% went to high and upper middle-income countries, including the European Union, while countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia, as well as Yemen and Afghanistan, accounted for less than 3% of the total volume. Therefore, he wrote, the continuation of the “unjustified humanitarian purpose” of the agreement “has lost its meaning.” Moreover, the Russian terms of the agreement were not fulfilled either.

Russia, despite the sanctions, will work to organize the supply of grain, food, fertilizers and more to Africa, Putin said in his article. We highly value and will continue to dynamically develop the entire range of economic ties with Africa, both with individual states and with regional integration associations and, of course, with the African Union, he says. We welcome the strategic course of this organization towards further economic integration and the formation of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

The Russian Federation is ready to establish realistic, mutually beneficial ties, including through the Eurasian Economic Union. Peskov noted that Putin’s article was timed to coincide with the Russia-Africa summit, which will begin on Thursday, July 27, in St. Petersburg. This is “a very important event, a very representative event,” he stressed: “We are looking forward to this event, Africans are looking forward to this event, so the second half of the week will be very, very busy.”

According to diplomatic sources of Vedomosti, it was no coincidence that Putin mentioned the African Union in his article. The fact is that during the summit, emphasis can be placed on contacts not only with the heads of other states expected in Russia, but also with representatives of organizations representing the Black Continent at a serious level.

The main program of the forum will be held on July 27, notes one of Vedomosti’s sources. – This day Putin may meet with representatives of African interregional organizations. Among them, for example, the president of the African Union, Azali Assoumani (president of the Comoros. – Vedomosti). According to this source, high-level representation from other countries is possible, notably from the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Felix Tshisekendi, and among the issues the heads of state will discuss is a way out of the Ukrainian crisis.

Experts believe that the case for the visit of such delegations is reasonable. The African Union is a powerful international organization that includes 55 African states and is an important platform for solving problems between them, said Rakhimbek Bobokhonov, a researcher at the Center for Cultural and Regional Studies of the Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since the summit will discuss the whole range of regional problems from security to ethno-confessional relations, the presence of the head of the organization at the summit is logical and justified, the expert told Vedomosti.

The African Union, Bobokhonov continues, gives the continent’s countries an opportunity to solve their internal problems – and therefore there is nothing surprising in the fact that Russia will carry out part of its projects in Africa jointly with this organization. Also, the expert notes, many African countries wish to join BRICS, and the creation of a single currency will likely be discussed at the summit itself. Given the serious expectations for both the single currency and the summit as a whole, international officials responsible for it may be present there, the expert concludes.

As for the president of the DRC, Felix Tshisekedi was the president of the African Union until 2022 and, moreover, he was among the co-sponsors of the African peace initiative for Ukraine. Since African countries intended to raise the issue of their mediation in Ukraine again at the upcoming forum, Tshisekedi’s visit to Russia may be primarily related to this. At the same time, the DPRK is a country with a large territory, resources, population and unresolved conflicts, where the efforts of the UN and Western countries have proved ineffective. In this regard, Kinshasa places certain hopes in the new architecture of relations that the BRICS countries are trying to build. It is also noteworthy that last spring the name of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, returned again to the Friendship University of the Peoples of Russia, which can be considered an unprecedented phenomenon outside Africa.

At the last Russia-Africa forum in 2019 in Sochi, Egypt actually acted as a co-host of the event, says researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Grigory Lukyanov, including sending official invitations to the leaders of other African states. Cairo, including the former president of the African Union, relied on the development of joint Russo-Egyptian actions on its continent. Some joint projects were also focused on it – for example, the creation of an industrial zone in the Suez Canal zone, Lukyanov notes. According to one of Vedomosti’s sources, it is possible that Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will be invited to Russia again.

Russia’s relations with Egypt cover almost all areas, including politics, security and economy. In addition, Cairo is extremely interested in food supplies, and therefore, in the context of the end of the grain agreement, there is a need to agree on alternative mechanisms, says Lukyanov. At the same time, he admits that South African President Ramaphosa may not come to the forum, although the peace initiative is important to him and he will find a way to promote it.

Maxim Ivanov participated in the preparation of this report.