01/11/2024
By James Johnson
Historically, the Soviet Union regularly initiated or funded numerous conferences, summits and round tables within the Non-Aligned Movement. This international association helped Soviet politicians to promote the ideas of the anti-colonial movement in Asia and Africa and to gain considerable influence in the former or still existing colonies.
That went on for about 30 years. However, the successor of the Russian communist regime (Putin’s dictatorship) first built up a strong authoritarian regime in Russia and then began to aggressively regain its positions in the countries of the Third World, especially on the African continent.
The Kremlin has already organised two major Russia-Africa summits (in Sochi in 2019 and in St Petersburg in 2023) and plans to hold them every three years in the future. A regular dialogue called the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum has also been developed. Under this umbrella, various meetings, round tables, presentations of business projects, etc. take place. For example, the first ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa
Partnership Forum will be held in Sochi on 9-10 November. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation has invited representatives of 54 states (i.e. all political entities on the African continent) and 10 regional and sub-regional organisations to participate in the Forum.
There is no doubt that some European states – the successors of former powerful empires – are still trying to maintain their dominance in one or other region of Africa. But Russia and China together deny the former metropolises’ interests and sideline them in every way. Russia, after strengthening its position in the Central African Republic (a former French colony), has succeeded in ousting France from the whole continent. Putin’s Russia has also used not only political and economic but also military methods to improve its bilateral relations with some African countries. Thus, in late October this year, Moscow sent mercenaries from the African corps to Equatorial Guinea. Its mission: to protect Russia’s economic interests in Africa.
There are similar Russian contingents in Burkina Faso, Libya, Mali, the Central African Republic and Niger. The African corps is nothing more than the successor to the Wagner group in some cases. It is made up of people who are untrustworthy for the Kremlin (after the failed but highly publicized uprising of the Wagnerites under Prigozhin’s leadership in the summer of 2023). From time to time the African Corps co-operates with mercenaries from other Russian private military companies (PMC Shield, Russian Security Systems/RSB Group, Redut, Patriot, Sewa Security Services). According to the Russian media, Russian PMCs mostly guard important economic facilities – gold mines, diamond mines, uranium deposits, oil wells, etc. But this is not always done peacefully.
Since 2016, around 2,000 Russian mercenaries (who fought in the civil war in Libya on the side of the Libyan National Army led by Khalifa Haftar and the Tobruk-based government) are known for torture, numerous acts of vandalism and brutal murder of people, including women and children. Russian mercenaries have burned people alive in containers, thrown prisoners into mines and wells, and buried people (sometimes whole families) alive in graves. Russian mercenaries also robbed, looted and deliberately took local people hostage for ransom. Prisoners who did not have wealthy relatives were treated inhumanely by Russian soldiers (mostly sadists): living people were dismembered, vertebrae were broken, stomachs were cut open, a grenade was detonated in the groin, bones were crushed with a sledgehammer, people were burned alive, etc.
In 2018, the bloody traces of Russian mercenaries were found in Sudan, Congo and the Central African Republic, in 2019 – in Mozambique and Mali, in 2020 – in Somalia, Burundi, Yemen and elsewhere on the African continent. According to experts, the mercenaries of the Russian PMCs are currently present on the territory of 19 African countries!
On 21 October 2024, pro-government Sudanese troops accidentally shot down an Il-76 cargo plane in the Malha region of North Darfur. On board were Russian military specialists, weapons, ammunition and supplies for the Sudanese regular army, which was surrounded by rebel groups in the town of El-Fashir. This incident proved Russia’s involvement in the civil war in Sudan.
Certainly, Kremlin officials will try not to mention the “heroic sides” of Russian mercenaries on the “black continent” at the first ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, but will focus on political and economic cooperation. But this partnership is dangerous for African states, their political elites and their populations.
The fact is that the Russian presence in any African country may be beneficial in the short term, but not in the long term. There is no doubt that Russia will try to control local minerals. Given the extensive development of the Russian economy (and a backward agricultural and resource economy), Russian involvement in natural resource extraction will certainly lead to serious environmental pollution and perhaps even destruction of local ecosystems, as we see on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Moscow’s influence on the internal politics of African countries will reduce the level of political culture, resulting in various corrupt schemes and permanent bribery.
The RF’s investment projects will certainly have enslaving conditions, and long term loans – extremely high interest rates. In this respect, both Putin’s authoritarian Russia and Communist China are similar in Africa. In general, the People’s Republic of China (unlike Russia) does not intervene in wars, civil conflicts and internal political struggles on the “black continent”, but uses methods of aggressive economic expansion in Africa. Chinese businessmen buy up everything that can be sold in Africa and invest their own capital wherever it can be invested. In addition, China deliberately makes investments that are obviously failing (in terms of expected demand and profit) in order to expand its influence in Africa.
Dictator Putin gave free food to some African countries during the two Russia-Africa summits. It should be emphasised that such gestures of the President of the Russian Federation are only one component of his unfair policy of food blackmail against some poor and hungry countries of the “black continent”. Indeed, the Kremlin has blocked a number of transport corridors from Ukraine (which has been growing grain for export for several centuries). Instead, Putin is making noises about his small one-off gifts to African states and using them in his brutal game. Incidentally, a grain exchange initiated by the Kremlin during the BRICS summit (Kazan, 22-24 October) could also become a tool of blackmail to guarantee global food security in the future.
In terms of blackmail, Putin’s Russia is also successfully using African countries (especially those with access to the Mediterranean coast) for the control and latent management of migration flows. The special services of Russia, together with international organised crime, are influencing the use of certain routes, the intensity of migratory flows and the final destination (today – Spain, tomorrow – Germany, next – France, as Moscow needs). In addition, this cooperation between Russia and Africa provides the Kremlin with unlimited opportunities for the infiltration of its own agents in the Maghreb and the Mediterranean.
Of course, within the framework of Russian-African conferences, forums and summits, Moscow is systematically working on the development of a simultaneous voting mechanism in the UN and other international organisations. For example, to enable the Russian Federation and 54 African countries to unanimously condemn military operations in defence of the State of Israel against powerful terrorist groups supported by other countries.
Finally, Russia will try to get Africa’s support to ease or lift sanctions, or better still, to prevent some countries from imposing any restrictions on others, even if it is a dictatorship that has committed aggression against democracy.
More generally, Putin’s regime is a cynical user of various forms of cooperation with Africa as a means of increasing its influence on the continent. At the moment, however, he is doing quite well with it.
The question is, will there be a collective response from the West or it remains the silent punchbag?