Putin's pivot to Africa reaps geopolitical dividends, thwarts NATO's ambitions
The West is losing influence in Africa as more countries gravitate towards Moscow, which offers mutual respect and development. NATO's claim that Russia is "isolated" now rings hollow.
Despite pressure and intimidation from the U.S., the second Russia-Africa Summit (July 27-28) in St. Petersburg was a success, gathering representatives from 47 of the 54 African countries. This Russian diplomatic victory has sent a stark message to the global community — NATO efforts to isolate Russia have failed.
Over the past few months, with typical imperialist flair, the White House has demanded that African leaders condemn Russia and not attend the forum. Those efforts have backfired, however, and instead, we’re seeing a rapid decline of western influence in Africa.
The West only has itself to blame for such a failure. The invasions, bombings and CIA-sponsored revolutions across Africa and the Middle East over the past 25 years have left most of the world fearful and suspicious of the West. Second, nearly 500 years of western imperialism, slavery and genocide of African peoples can’t be erased.
Third, liberal spin doctors are caught inside their own trap. They promoted concepts such as “white supremacy” and “institutional racism” in order to weaken Trump when he was president. While such smear tactics have stopped — because Biden is now in the White House — those accusations continue to resonate globally. Ironically, a negative residue about the ‘racist West’ remains in the minds of many Africans.
Russia, however, doesn’t have such a disgraceful centuries-old track record in Africa. In Soviet times, when Moscow first became involved in Africa, it was a staunch ally of the national liberation, anti-colonial movements across the continent.
“We supported African peoples in their struggle for liberation from colonial oppression. We provided assistance in developing statehood, strengthening their sovereignty and defense capability,” said President Vladimir Putin last week. “We’ve always strictly adhered to the ‘African solutions to African problems’ principle, standing in solidarity with Africans in their struggle for self-determination, justice and legitimate rights. We’ve never tried to impose our own ideas about the internal structure, forms and methods of management, development goals.”
As the largest country on Earth, Russia has ample natural resources and, unlike resource-starved Europe, it has no need to covet Africa’s wealth. Moscow’s friendship with Africa pays geopolitical dividends and is primarily a means to check NATO’s ambition to create a global empire.
While Moscow has substantial diplomatic resources, the controversial Wagner Group is its most visible asset in Africa. Wagner has been most active in the Central African Republic (CAR), Libya, Mali, and Sudan.
Since 2018, for example, Wagner troops have protected CAR’s President Faustin-Archange Touadéra who attended the Russia–Africa Summit. He met President Putin, saying that Russia had helped to save his country’s democracy and prevent a civil war.
Indeed, ‘People Power’ is rising across Africa, and NATO countries are furious. Niger is the most recent country to have a popular uprising against a corrupt regime controlled by France and the U.S. Both countries have military bases in Niger, which is a major source of uranium, with about 7% of known global reserves.
The U.S. State Department demands that deposed dictator President Bazoum be reinstated, describing him as “a reliable counter-terrorism partner". This statement is quite odd, considering that NATO is a major sponsor of terrorism (attacks against civilians in Donbass and across Russia, as well as the NordStream pipeline attack).
Now ex-president Bazoum is hated by his people precisely because he sold out his country to the West. Videos last week of jubilant crowds in Niamey, the capital city, leave little doubt as to which country they prefer — the Russian flag was prominently displayed.
Currently, the main issue in Russian-African relations is, of course, the “Ukrainian grain deal”. The failure of the West to uphold that deal’s conditions have ignited the ire of the African people.
Over the past 12 months, a total of 33 million tons of grains were exported from Ukraine, with over 70% ending up in European countries. African and Middle Eastern countries received less than 3% of total Ukrainian grain supplies, even though they were promised all of it by Kiev and NATO.
Meanwhile, the exemption from sanctions of Russian grain and fertilizer exports hasn’t been fulfilled. Of 262,000 tons of Russian goods blocked in European ports, only two shipments were delivered – 1) about 20,000 tons to Malawi; and 2) about 34,000 tons to Kenya. The rest is still illegally held by EU/ NATO countries.
“Despite the sanctions, Russia will continue its energetic efforts to provide supplies of grain, food products, fertilizers and other goods to Africa. We highly value and will further develop economic ties with Africa,” said Putin. “I give assurances that our country is capable of replacing Ukrainian grain both on a commercial and free-of-charge basis, especially as we expect another record harvest this year.”
Eritrea's President Afwerki spoke for many Africans last week when he said: “This is not a war between Russia and Ukraine. This is the West’s war against Russia because the West knows that they have to defeat Russia so that they can hegemonize the world. Ukraine is a sacrifice.”
With over one billion people, African diplomatic support for Russia is crucial. The continent collectively has the world’s youngest population. And it’s not far-fetched to say that, in theory, another front against NATO could be launched from Africa. Imagine a pan-African army — millions of young soldiers — marching north against their western oppressors, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar. Yes, it sounds far-fetched, but we now live in a topsy-turvy world where truly anything is possible.
Over the past 500 years, the West has primarily brought conflict and destruction to Africa. With Russia as an ally, the continent now has an opportunity to begin a new era of development and prosperity. For that to happen, western influence in Africa needs to be supplanted. This is why African nations flocked to St. Petersburg last week. They finally see hope to build a new and better world.
What Afwerki says is true, and yet understates the point. The war isn't just against Russia. Russia is the immediate target because she is the only nation with both the "audacity" and capability to resist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiEkmDH3PLc
Putin has been criticized internally for being slow to action. He has himself expressed regret for not starting the SMO in 2014. From a purely military perspective, this is reasonable. But I see many signs that his "overly patient" approach has nurtured a great deal of global sympathy and trust. Not just Africa.