The critical geopolitical context created by the crisis in relations between Moscow and the collective West gave the Russia-Africa Summit a breakthrough character. We witnessed numerous attempts by Washington and its allies to drive a wedge between Russia and the Global South. In fact, the West has become obsessed with this task, in the solution of which it saw the key to preserving its global dominance, which "tripped" over the aloof position of the World Majority. For the sake of "correct" results of the UN votes, the anti-Russian coalition used all possible resources to pressurize non-Western states, including African ones. Then began maneuvers on the sanctions front, up to outright blackmail of Africans. But even here Africa turned out to be a "weak link" in the strategy of hybrid warfare against Russia.
Recently, tools of psychological pressure have been used, including a disinformation campaign around the collapse of the "grain deal" and, finally, attempts to disrupt the July summit. The very fact that the summit was held was a powerful success of domestic diplomacy. Our adversaries failed to push the global agenda on the Ukrainian issue as part of their efforts to replace the international legal order with some kind of "rules-based order" dictated by the West.
Africa, like the post-Soviet countries, after the end of the Cold War believed in the limitlessness of the prospects offered by globalization. The result in both cases was very similar. Cynically claiming that the "hand of the market" will put everything in its place, the US and former European colonial powers took advantage of the ideological vacuum to perpetuate the neocolonial robbery of the African continent, including through the strategy of "managed chaos. As in the states of the former Soviet Union, we can still see the consequences today, for example in Sudan, Libya or the Sahel.
The current confusion of Western capitals in the face of the manifestation of their own "self" by African states that are aware of their own geopolitical and economic potential - the basis for a respectful and equal dialog with all leading powers - is understandable.
It is now obvious that geopolitical imperatives and its own interests, including trade and economic interests, no longer allow Moscow to "take too long" in developing deep and full-blooded relations with Africa. Our African partners, in turn, will get a real competitive environment in the field of external participation in their development.
As Vladimir Putin noted, "before our eyes, the African continent is becoming a new center of power. Its political and economic role is growing exponentially. And everyone will have to reckon with this objective reality". Of fundamental importance is the Russian proposal to include the African Union - by analogy with the EU - in the G20, which will powerfully contribute to the formation of a multipolar architecture of international relations.
Rector of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry,
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the UK (2011-2019) Alexander Yakovenko.