Kaka's opponents say that when he went to Russia in January it was to strike a deal with President Vladimir Putin and to join the Alliance des États du Sahel (AES) the new alliance of the miliary regimes in Burkina Faso Mali and Niger and that after he wins the presidential election he will ask French troops to leave (AC Vol 65 No 3 Juntas in shock split from Ecowas)...

Algerians complain that Tebboune's poor performance abroad – where even key ally Russia's President Vladimir Putin seems to have a low opinion as well as Algeria's failure to join the BRICS grouping – is doing down the nation...

He has also said on social media that President Vladimir Putin was correct to start the war with Ukraine after the EU sided with 'Nazis' in Kyiv and that President Emmanuel Macron and France were a greater threat to Africa than famine...

It was expected because no one believed President Vladimir Putin would do business as usual with someone who had tried to overthrow him...

Aside from having to pacify Modi Ramaphosa's diplomatic role was simplified because Russia's President Vladimir Putin had stayed away due to his International Criminal Court arrest warrant...

But opaque relations between Wagner and the Kremlin allow a useful ambiguity for President Vladimir Putin...

And when President Emmerson Mnangagwa thanked Russia's President Vladimir Putin for his offer of 50 000 tonnes of free grain at Africa summit in St Petersburg on 27-28 July he insisted that Zimbabwe was food secure but would accept it anyway...

Announcing he 'stands in solidarity with Russia's President Vladimir Putin' Mnangagwa accepted a gift of 50 000 tonnes of grain and a helicopter that he intends to use for election campaigning...

Malian junta leader Col Assimi Goïta pronounced himself 'very satisfied' on his Twitter account following a lengthy phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on 14 June...