Vol 64 No 3 |
- RUSSIA
- AFRICA
Russian officials are confident that South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa will attend President Vladimir Putin's Russia-Africa summit due to be held in late July in St Petersburg...
It resents the western view that its role in the region is nothing more than the Wagner Group run by Yevgeny Prigozhin a Vladimir Putin confidant...
It is financed directly by the Kremlin in the service of President Vladimir Putin's determination to confront France...
But the risk at that meeting which is set to be the first face-to-face encounter since the pandemic between China's Xi Jinping Russia's Vladimir Putin and US's Joe Biden is that geopolitics again push cooperations on debt and climate to the margins...
Africa Confidential understands that there will be no overt attempts to woo the President away from his refusal to condemn President Vladimir Putin's aggression in Ukraine...
UN Secretary General António Guterres explained that he was late for his first press conference because he was on a call to Russia's President Vladimir Putin discussing details of the deal to allow the export of millions of tonnes of grain from blockaded ports in the Black Sea...
Some critics have suggested that Lourenço will like Russian President Vladimir Putin did with Dmitry Medvedev put forward Esperança Costa as candidate in 2026 with him as Vice-President...
Vol 63 No 17 |
- HORN OF AFRICA
Somalia's Abdullah Mohamed Abdullah 'Farmajo' tried to court Russia in his last months in office but President Vladimir Putin was not tempted as the main strategic focus for the Kremlin remains its interests in Sudan such as gold mining and a presence in the Red Sea...
Part of any deal with Moscow would involve Wagner Group the mercenary company close to President Vladimir Putin which has security contracts with Col Assimi Goïta's military regime in neighbouring Mali and Central African Republic...
DISPATCHES
Senegal's President Macky Sall who chairs the African Union this year told the summit that economies in his region were caught between the hammer of Russian President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine and the anvil of sanctions on Moscow which have triggered widespread disruptions of supply chains...
READ FOR FREE
UMK's role in funding the ANC is not the only potential reason the government is refusing to condemn Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine...
On 15 June South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Russia's Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone apparently at Ramaphosa's request after which the Kremlin reported that the presidents had 'expressed satisfaction with the current level of the two countries' strategic partnership'...
