Ready to whitewash his image and pose as a world power, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed on Thursday to send up to 50,000 tons of grain supplies free to six African countries. His words grabbed the headlines of the day in the Russian media as he opened a Russia-Africa summit in his hometown of St. Petersburg: “In the coming months we will be able to secure the free supply of 25,000 to 50,000 tons of grain to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali , Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea,” he said in his opening speech a week after announcing an abandonment of the Black Sea grain export deal that could cause famine in several African countries.
The Russian leader added that those presenting Russia as an unreliable food supplier were “telling lies,” which has been “the practice of some Western states for decades, if not centuries.” The Kremlin is looking for friends and partners in this second summit between Russia and Africa. The first, in Sochi four years ago, was attended by 45 heads of state or government. Only 17 presidents attended this one, in which Moscow seeks to strengthen ties in the face of the partial isolation suffered by the war in Ukraine, although several dozen countries participated in total. The Kremlin attributes this general “fright” to the pressure exerted by the United States and also France, which is still active in Africa.
In his speech, Putin explained the reasons why he abandoned the grain agreement, which, according to his version, was not taking grain to the poorest countries, a fact denied by the EU and which, in any case, was not in the right conditions. The Russian leader did not acknowledge the fact that the compromise served to substantially lower world prices, which have risen sharply again since Russia withdrew from the deal.
During these days Russia has been redoubling its efforts to block Ukraine’s grain exports and maximize the damage to its economy. In addition to its systematic attacks on three Ukrainian Black Sea ports near Odessa in recent days, Moscow for the first time attacked Ukrainian terminals on the Danube river on Monday. But at the same time he has used the supply of grain – in some cases stolen from Ukraine – as a vector to generate sympathy for his position on Ukraine in the so-called “global south” and create a climate of opinion against Western sanctions.
Although the Kremlin now seeks to bolster Russia’s image as a “friend of Africa”, developing countries are at risk of a food emergency because of the invasion of Ukraine and Moscow’s breach of the grain deal. Kenya denounced this week that the Russian break was a “stab in the back” that “disproportionately affects countries” in its region.
Despite its high profile in Africa, Russia invests relatively little in this continent of 1.3 billion people. At the first Russia-Africa Summit in 2019, Putin promised to double Russia’s trade with the continent in five years, but it remains stagnant. Moscow contributes less than 1% of what goes to Africa in foreign direct investment, and sends almost no humanitarian aid.
But Russia does offer products and services of interest to African leaders. It provides weapons (it is the main supplier to Africa) and security through its mercenaries and at the same time avoids teaching African countries about respecting minorities such as homosexuals, something that some authoritarian governments highly value. Uganda is exposed to sanctions from Washington for a new law that established the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”. The president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, appears as a speaker at this summit in a colloquium on “forms of new colonialism imposed today by the West on the world majority.” Uganda, precisely, and also Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Ethiopia, Angola and Burkina Faso, are among Russia’s biggest arms buyers.
By hampering Ukraine’s grain exports, Russia hopes to reduce Ukraine’s budget revenues and significantly increase prices on the world market, and reap the benefits for itself. “Our country is capable of replacing Ukrainian grain commercially and free of charge,” and “continuing the grain deal in its current form had already lost all meaning,” Putin advanced this week.
On the table is the future of the Wagner group in countries like Sudan and Mali, which hire mercenaries in exchange for natural resources such as gold. His mutiny last June has raised questions about his future role on the continent, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Wagner’s work in Africa will continue.
In this appointment, Putin tries to draw other influential countries into his orbit, including Ethiopia, Congo, Nigeria and Senegal. In return, various African countries have avoided condemning the invasion of Ukraine. In his speech at the meeting Azali Assoumani, the leader of Comoros and chair of the African Union, referred to the war as the “Russian-Ukrainian crisis.”
The Russian narrative is willing to contradict itself to appeal to African countries. Various spokesmen for the Russian regime, such as Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Russian Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, denounced the “neocolonial” policy of the West, while defending Moscow’s imperial ambitions over its old territories in Ukraine and the threat that according to its apparently supposes for Moscow the government chosen by the Ukrainians.
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