Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered what he called “total support” to Africa, including in the fight against terrorism and extremism.
The speech was read out at a summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to his African counterparts.
A growing number of African governments are cutting ties with traditional Western allies and looking to Moscow for help in tackling frequent attacks from jihadists.
During the summit, Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré said Russia is a more suitable international partner than former colonial power France.
It’s a view shared by several former French colonies – and echoed by Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop, who contrasted the Kremlin’s “genuine” partnership with the “neocolonial” relationship between Western powers.
He said that in addition to military cooperation, Mali is also exploring other joint projects in the energy, telecommunications, technology and mining sectors.
“Russian companies cooperate with the Malian government in all these areas [private] partners in Mali to provide solutions to the challenges facing the Malian people. The two sides agreed to increase the pace to ensure rapid results,” he said on the second and final day of the Conference of African Foreign Ministers.
Wagner mercenaries – now renamed the Afrika Korps flag by the Russian Ministry of Defense – were the preferred choice of the military leaders who ordered the French and UN forces to leave.
Russian aid, often in exchange for access to raw materials, also comes with a promise that there will be no interference in a country’s internal affairs or lessons on how to hold elections.
However, Russian military expeditions to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have helped protect junta leaders there but have not made much progress in the fight against Islamist militants.
Nevertheless, the Kremlin is trumpeting these new friends, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying the conference has dashed Western hopes of Russia’s isolation.
And Lavrov said Russia’s relations with Africa are growing “more and more” stronger, with progress “on all axes.”
Putin’s speech underlined this point.
“I would like to reiterate that our country will continue to provide total support to our African friends in various sectors: ensuring sustainable development, the fight against terrorism and extremism, combating epidemics, food problems and the consequences of natural disasters,” the report said.
Rwanda, whose Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe was also in Sochi, is one of several African countries that have already signed deals with Moscow to help build a nuclear power plant.
He told AFP news agency that hundreds of Rwandan students had graduated from Russian universities, including “those specialized in nuclear sciences”.
“We hope to train a certain number of scientific managers specialized in this field,” he added.
Five years ago, Putin promised to double trade with Africa – this has not happened.
But by using other means that the West believes are destabilizing the continent, Russian influence has grown significantly.
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