{"id":232167,"date":"2022-07-22T20:16:11","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T18:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/five-essential-reads-on-russia-africa-relations\/"},"modified":"2022-07-22T20:16:11","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T18:16:11","slug":"five-essential-reads-on-russia-africa-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/five-essential-reads-on-russia-africa-relations\/","title":{"rendered":"Five essential reads on Russia-Africa relations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Russia\u2019s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, will visit four African nations<\/a> \u2013 Ethiopia, Egypt, Uganda and Congo-Brazzaville \u2013 from Sunday 24 July. The visit comes ahead of the second Russia-Africa summit, expected to be held in Addis Ababa in October-November.<\/p>\n

The first Russia-Africa Summit<\/a> was held in Sochi, Russia in 2019 and attended by several African heads of state and government. <\/p>\n

During his visit, Lavrov will meet heads of state and business, in what has been billed as a \u201cworking visit\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Conversation Africa has published numerous articles by experts on Russia\u2019s relationship with Africa. Here we present five essential reads.<\/p>\n

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Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine has not attracted universal condemnation in Africa. So the visit is likely to be viewed as much more than a precursor for the upcoming summit and more as a charm offensive by Moscow. Theo Neethling sets out how Moscow has been growing its strategic influence in Africa.<\/p>\n

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Read more: How Russia is growing its strategic influence in Africa<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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For a while now, competition among the world powers for influence in Africa has been seen as primarily between the United States and China. But research shows that President Vladimir Putin is intent on tilting the global balance of power in Russia\u2019s favour, in line with his vision of restoring Moscow\u2019s Soviet era status as a super power. On this view, Putin is determined to counter America\u2019s influence and match China\u2019s large economic footprint on the continent. J\u00e1nos Beseny\u0151 examines whether Russia can offer an alternative to the US and China in Africa.<\/p>\n

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Read more: Russia in Africa: can it offer an alternative to the US and China?<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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The vision of the African Union is for the continent to act in concert on global issues. But there wasn\u2019t much evidence of this pan-Africanist approach in the way the continent voted on United Nations resolutions to condemn Russia\u2019s aggression against Ukraine. John J Stremlau shows how some African nations voted either for or against Russia, while others, notably South Africa, abstained.<\/p>\n

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Read more: African countries showed disunity in UN votes on Russia: South Africa’s role was pivotal<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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Political and security analyst Joseph Siegle argues that Russia\u2019s approach to Africa involves an elite cooption strategy<\/a>, with the aim of serving Russia\u2019s strategic objectives. Siegle explains that the interests of African citizens and nations give way to Russian priorities, with destabilising effects. <\/p>\n

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Read more: Ukraine war: fresh warning that Africa needs to be vigilant against Russia’s destabilising influence<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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Military equipment is a key factor in the relationship between Russia and several African countries. In fact, almost half<\/a> of Africa\u2019s imports of military equipment (49%) come from Russia. These include major arms (battle tanks, warships, fighter aircraft and combat helicopters) and small arms (pistols and assault rifles, such as the new Kalashnikov AK-200 series rifle). Defence analyst Moses Khanyile reveals how the sanctions imposed on Russia by the countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance will disrupt sales. This will bring both risks and opportunities for the continent.<\/p>\n

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Read more: Sanctions against Russia will affect arms sales to Africa: the risks and opportunities<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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Source: The Conversation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia\u2019s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, will visit four African nations \u2013 Ethiopia, Egypt, Uganda and Congo-Brazzaville \u2013 from Sunday 24 July. The visit comes ahead of the second Russia-Africa summit, expected to be held in Addis Ababa in October-November. The first Russia-Africa Summit was held in Sochi, Russia in 2019 and attended by several African […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":232168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-232167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-mypr","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/five-essential-reads-on-russia-africa-relations.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}