Publications /
Policy Brief

Back
Military Relations Between Russia and Africa, Before and After The War in Ukraine
Authors
February 24, 2023

In a recent telephone conversation, Russian President Vladimir Putin officially invited Assimi Goïta, the military chief of the transition in Mali, to take part in the second Russia-Africa summit to be held in Saint Petersburg. This summit is scheduled for July 2023, according to Mikhail Bogdanov, the special representative of the president of Russia to the Middle East and Africa and deputy foreign minister. Russia is openly optimistic that several African leaders will attend the planned summit, according to Russian Ambassador-at-Large Oleg Ozerov: “Russia expects that most African leaders will attend the Russia-Africa summit in 2023 … We are getting positive responses. I think most African heads of state will be at the forum.

Despite Russia’s war with Ukraine, President Putin remains keen on maintaining and strengthening relations with Africa, and this planned summit is a follow-up, four years later, to the October 2019 meeting in Sochi attended by a multitude of African leaders. Russia’s determination to hold the Summit with African countries—amid its ongoing war in Ukraine and difficulties imposed on Moscow by Western sanctions—is either: the result of Africa’s importance to Russian foreign policy and, therefore, the meeting with African leaders must take place, regardless of conditions; because Russia needs African states to counter Western attempts to isolate it on the international stage; or because Russia seeks to show that its war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed by the West do not impact the normal operations of the Russian state, which continues to hold normal relations with the rest of the world, including Africa.

It is a considerable challenge to bring together African heads of state in Russia, despite the United Nations (UN) vote by African countries last October, signaling a turning point in African positions toward Russia and its war in Ukraine. The challenge is great and begs the question of whether RussiaAfrica relations are strong enough to withstand the war in Ukraine.

This paper examines this issue, and attempts to determine whether the war in Ukraine, launched by Russia in February 2022, will affect Russia-Africa relations, have no impact, or strengthen Russia-Africa ties ...

RELATED CONTENT

  • July 20, 2022
    2021 was a year of global geopolitical disruption and geo-economic upheaval. As events gather momentum, the world enters a period of geopolitical and geo-economic transition; the end of one historical cycle foreshadowing the uncertain prospects of a new one. We are henceforth, in presen...
  • Authors
    July 12, 2022
    October 22, 1962. One of those days in history to be forever part of destiny- warships of the Soviet Union confronting the US Navy off Cuba, an ally of Moscow, which convinced Fidel Castro to participate in a secret conspiracy: the stationing of strategic nuclear missiles on the island, located just 90 miles off the continental United States. Once discovered, US President John F. Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine on Moscow's ships. History would be repeated another time on a differ ...
  • Authors
    June 27, 2022
    Hardly any declaration of war against Russian culture Dostojevsky, Tolstoy, Pasternak, Pushkin, Nabokov, Turgenev, icons of Russian literature, breathing the soul of mother Russia, the depth of heavy historical burdens and despair, touched by nostalgia for Holy, Imperial Russia and cruelty of dictators like Stalin, the national conscience and pride wounded by invasions of Nazi Germany and Napoleon. Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff, revelat ...
  • Authors
    June 27, 2022
    Three questions to Jamal Machrouh   This article was initially published on https://www.institutmontaigne.org/   Morocco was among the countries not taking part in the March 2 UN General Assembly vote following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This position raised questions in Europe as Morocco is Europe's largest partner in the Maghreb. Jamal Machrouh, Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, sheds light on Morocco's perceived neutrality in the Ukrainian conflict in o ...
  • Authors
    Pascal Chaigneau
    Alain Oudot de Dainville
    Rodolphe Monnet
    Florent Parmentier
    Olivier Tramond
    June 16, 2022
    Les Dialogues stratégiques, une collaboration entre le HEC Center for Geopolitics et le Policy Center for the New South représentent une plateforme d’analyse et d’échange biannuelle réunissant des experts, des praticiens, des décideurs politiques ainsi que le monde universitaire et les médias au service d’une réflexion critique et approfondie sur les tendances politiques mondiales et les grandes questions d’importance commune pour l’Europe et l’Afrique. Cette publication est ...
  • May 20, 2022
    Traders have worried that the war involving Russia and Ukraine could stoke inflation, further disrupt supply chains and derail the global economic recovery. Scarcity of food has led to ri ...
  • Authors
    May 19, 2022
    Any enforcement of peace through violence is absurd Fear is not an adequate description of the feeling when bombs explode in your vicinity and you feel an invisible, destructive wave envelop your body, soul, and mind.  Tears may flow, screams are to be absorbed by those whose legs or arms are ripped out of their bodies by the blast-they may be blind forever, never hear a sound again, but in your subconscious, the blasts will never desert you ever., Thunderstorms remind-soaked you ...