President Vladimir Putin of Russia likes to solid himself because the chief of a world motion rising up in opposition to domination by the United States and its allies. On Sunday, his prime diplomat introduced that message on to Africa, hoping to show the starvation and social strife throughout the continent to Russia’s benefit.
He is prone to discover a receptive viewers.
Even earlier than setting out on his four-country tour, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov made clear he would use the journey guilty the West for the grain shortages tied to the conflict in Ukraine which might be elevating fears of famine in African international locations and to color Russia because the continent’s trustworthy ally.
Ahead of the journey, Russia acquiesced to an settlement that enables Ukraine to renew exporting critically wanted grain that has been blocked in Black Sea ports by the preventing, an indication of Putin’s obvious concern for public opinion throughout the growing world.
The international meals disaster is anticipated to determine prominently in Lavrov’s journey to Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and the Republic of Congo. But whereas the grain shortages had been set off by the Russian invasion, the international minister recommended that Moscow was not the issue.
“We know that the African colleagues do not approve of the undisguised attempts of the U.S. and their European satellites to gain the upper hand, and to impose a unipolar world order to the international community,” he wrote in an article revealed in newspapers within the 4 international locations he was to go to.
Since the invasion of Ukraine in February, governments in Africa and within the Middle East have discovered themselves caught within the center.
Pressed by the West to sentence the invasion, these governments additionally search to take care of entry to Russian grain and different exports and to protect pleasant ties with Russia that in some circumstances date again to the Soviet period. Seeing no acquire in alienating both facet, some have tried to easily not take sides within the battle.
For his half, Egypt’s president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, has refused to sentence Moscow as strongly because the U.S. wished. And Sunday, after assembly with Lavrov, the Egyptian international minister, Sameh Shoukry, had heat phrases for his counterpart.
Egyptian-Russian relations “are historical, characterized by friendship and branched out into many fields politically, economically and culturally,” Shoukry declared at a information convention.
“We look forward to further close cooperation based on mutual respect and shared interest,” he stated.
Lavrov stated Russian agricultural exporters had been dedicated to assembly their obligations and that Russian and Egyptian ministries had agreed to proceed cooperating on the problem, based on Russian and Egyptian media reviews.
“We have reiterated the Russian grain exporters’ adherence to their commitments,” he stated at a joint information convention with Shoukry, including that Russia and Egypt had a “common understanding concerning the causes of the grain crisis.”
Western nations, too, have waged a concerted marketing campaign within the area, making an attempt to maintain international locations from getting too near Russia. Ahead of Lavrov’s go to Sunday, Western diplomats in Cairo lobbied Egypt behind the scenes to not give the Russian minister too heat a reception.
The American particular envoy for the Horn of Africa, Mike Hammer, was additionally set to go to the area beginning Sunday, with plans to journey to Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia for talks. The identical day, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo reminded reporters in a information launch that President Joe Biden had pledged $50 million for Egypt to assist offset the speedy rise in costs of wheat and different staple meals set off by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But Western makes an attempt at counterprogramming, together with editorials and social media posts, have executed little to draw extra public help within the Middle East. Russian disinformation and propaganda have discovered fertile floor in a area the place many Arabs have lengthy harbored anti-American and anti-Western sentiment stemming from the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Western help for Israel.
For months, the United States, Britain and the European Union have tried to show the argument of their favor by laying the duty for the hovering worth of bread and different primary meals squarely at Putin’s toes, roundly condemning Russia for shutting down the circulate of Ukrainian grain to the world by way of the Black Sea.
On Friday, Russia agreed to a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey that may enable Ukraine to export its grain. The subsequent morning, nonetheless, Russian missiles hit the port of Odesa, elevating questions on whether or not the deal would possibly collapse.
Samantha Power, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, stated in a video posted Saturday from Kenya, the place she was touring, that the Odesa assault was “just the latest indication of the cold indifference Vladimir Putin has for the cost of the war in Ukraine, a man-made war that he created for no reason.”
Ukraine, for its half, stated the association was nonetheless on. Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, advised CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that Ukraine would do every part attainable “to feed the world.” The strikes on Odesa, Markarova stated, demonstrated that Russia was not working in good religion. “Our farmers are even planting and harvesting under the fire,” she stated.
Wheat is a serious purpose Egypt can ailing afford to alienate both facet; prior to now, about 80% of its provide got here from Ukraine and Russia. Since the conflict started, its financial system has buckled underneath the stress of runaway inflation, evaporating international funding and shrinking grain provides.
Nearly 30% of Egypt’s vacationers got here from Russia earlier than the conflict, and Russia is constructing a $26 billion nuclear energy plant in Egypt. Yet Egypt can also be one of many prime recipients of U.S. international support.
So el-Sissi has tried to stability relationships with Russia and the West.
In March, el-Sissi known as Putin to reaffirm Egypt’s dedication to cooperation after it voted in favor of a United Nations decision to sentence the invasion. And final month, he gave a speech on the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia.
Elsewhere on the African continent, public opinion has appeared to waver between help for Ukraine and sympathy with Russia’s justification of its invasion.
While few African leaders have publicly supported Russia, no African international locations have joined the American and European sanctions in opposition to Moscow. That balancing act was obvious final month when the pinnacle of the African Union, President Macky Sall of Senegal, met with Putin.
Sall implored Putin to release the trapped Ukrainian grain — however he additionally echoed Moscow’s argument that Western sanctions had worsened the meals disaster, explicitly calling for lifting restrictions on exports of Russian wheat and fertilizer.
Though the sanctions don’t cowl these commodities, transport corporations, insurers, banks and different companies have been reluctant to do enterprise with Russia for worry of breaking the foundations or harming their reputations.
In his article forward of the journey to Africa, Lavrov praised African leaders for resisting Western stress to hitch the sanctions in opposition to Russia. “Such an independent path deserves deep respect,” he wrote.