Russia's ambassador to the United States has told Newsweek that Moscow is preparing to boost strategic ties with African nations in line with 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 gathering will come amid Western accusations that Russia is weaponizing food exports after Moscow pulled out of a grain deal and struck Ukrainian ports in a war that just entered its 18th month.
"Russia has rich and long-standing relations with African countries," Ambassador Anatoly Antonov told Newsweek. "Nowadays we intend to give an additional impetus to these ties and elevate them to a brand-new level."
This concept, he argued, "stands behind the Second Russia-Africa Summit, which will take place on July 27-28 in Saint Petersburg," the second of its kind since the debut event was held October 2019 in Sochi. Since then, Russia has maintained robust relations across much of Africa, even as a largely Western coalition of nations backing Kyiv seek to isolate Moscow on the world stage.
The upcoming summit will serve as an opportunity to showcase 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 located far from the frontlines of the conflict raging in Ukraine, many African nations have been impacted directly 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 due to active fighting in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia.
A deal forged a year ago under the auspices of Türkiye and the United Nations, through which a rare mutual buy-in from Moscow and Kyiv was secured, allowed for the continued to export of grains from Ukrainian docks. However, Russia terminated the agreement last week, arguing that the arrangement did not sufficiently allow for Russia to export its own food and fertilizer as a result of ongoing sanctions.
In a statement published to the Kremlin's website and shared with Newsweek by the Russian Embassy to the United States on Sunday, Putin recited this reasoning and argued that the initiative ended up being "shamelessly used solely for the enrichment of large US and European businesses that exported and resold grain from Ukraine" rather than serving its initial humanitarian purpose.
The Russian leader also offered to replace the Ukrainian supply with Russia's own exports as food security is set to be a major topic in Saint Petersburg.
"I want to give assurances that our country is capable of replacing the Ukrainian grain both on a commercial and free-of-charge basis, especially as we expect another record harvest this year," Putin said. "Notwithstanding the sanctions, Russia will continue its energetic efforts to provide supplies of grain, food products, fertilizers and other goods to Africa."
Putin also took the opportunity to highlight growing ties with African countries, naming a number of initiatives in trade, education and other fields, while noting that "the potential of our trade and economic partnership is much higher." He noted potential cooperation "in the sphere 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 fishery."
He touted his administration's efforts "to prepare an impressive package of intergovernmental and inter‑agency agreements and memoranda with individual states as well as regional associations of the continent" during the upcoming summit.
And he too referenced the rise of "a new multipolar world order," which he said "will be more just and democratic." He asserted that "there is no doubt that Africa, along with Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, will take its worthy place in it and finally free itself from the bitter legacy of colonialism and neo-colonialism, rejecting its modern practices."
Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and U.S. State Department for comment.
African countries have also stepped up their diplomacy around the ongoing conflict. As previewed by Newsweek, a delegation of six African heads of state hailing from Egypt, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia traveled to both Moscow and Kyiv last month in a bid to advance Russia-Ukraine peace talks.
Weeks earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also appeared in South Africa alongside the African nation's foreign minister and top diplomats from Brazil, China and India for a BRICS ministerial. 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 preserve its hegemonic global position."
But it would be Lavrov again who represented Russia in person at next month's BRICS leader's summit, with Putin instead appearing via video link amid a controversy over whether South Africa would be legally obliged to arrest Putin in line with an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant issued in March over war crime allegations related to the war in Ukraine.
South Africa and Ukraine are parties to the ICC's founding Rome Statue, while neither Russia nor the U.S. is. Washington has nonetheless welcomed the ICC decision and has increasingly criticized Moscow's inroads to Africa, including in security affairs.
Russia's security cooperation in Africa has been highlighted not only by official bilateral agreements but also the presence of the Wagner Group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin. While the private military company's future remains uncertain following Prigozhin's abortive uprising last month, U.S. officials have accused Russia and the Wagner Group of influencing Mali's decision to withdraw consent for United Nations Peacekeepers just weeks later.
Mali is one of several nations in which growing support for Russia has manifested amid heightened frustration over the presence of Western powers, especially France, which has increasingly withdrawn its troops from the continent.
U.S. officials have also sought to counter Russia's narrative on food security as the war in Ukraine continues with no clear end in sight.
When Russian ambassador-at-large and head of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Oleg Ozerov told Newsweek in May of "unprecedented momentum" in shoring up Russia-Africa relations, a U.S. State Department spokesperson argued that "Russia's unprovoked war against Ukraine has exacerbated the increase of food and commodity prices—especially wheat, fertilizer and cooking oil—just as African economies are striving to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, deadly drought, and the growing impact of the climate crisis on agriculture and food systems."
The State Department spokesperson told Newsweek at the time that U.S. officials "are confident that our partners will see through Russia's cynical attempts at disinformation and focus on the lives lost and the misery Russia's needless war has inflicted both on the people of Ukraine and also on vulnerable people far beyond Ukraine due to the war's exacerbation of food insecurity."
But, like Ozerov and Antonov, Putin expressed his own confidence that Moscow's message would resound at the upcoming gathering in Saint Petersburg.
"I am looking forward to welcoming the African leaders in St. Petersburg and stand committed to a fruitful constructive dialogue," Putin said in his statement Sunday. "I firmly believe that the decisions adopted at the Summit and Forum, coupled with continuous diversified joint work will contribute to further development of Russian‑African strategic partnership for the benefit of our countries and peoples."