The Russia-Africa Summit Secured the Status of a Pariah Country for Russia

On July 27 and 28, St. Petersburg hosts the Russia-Africa Summit, initiated and prepared by Moscow. The Kremlin sent invitations to this summit to the heads of all African countries. But the leaders of only 17 out of 54 agreed to come to St. Petersburg: 10 countries sent prime ministers to Russia, the rest will be represented by deputy prime ministers, ministers or ambassadors. Five countries refused to participate in the summit. For representatives of some countries, Russia even sent its own planes. [Source: https://www.currenttime.tv/a/russia-africa-summit/32522567.html]

The Russia-Africa Summit held in St. Petersburg is presented by Russian propagandists as a great victory for Russia.

However, the opposite is indicated by the words of Russian President Putin, who once again declared on the sidelines of this summit that the West had wrapped him around his finger. So, commenting on Moscow's exit from the so-called. "grain deal", Putin said:

“Russia agreed to participate in this so-called deal, including taking into account the obligations contained in it that illegitimate obstacles to the supply of our grain and fertilizers to world markets will be removed. And I want to tell you that this, and above all this, is about helping the poorest countries. In fact, nothing happened from what we discussed and from what we were promised.”

Undoubtedly, this position of the President of Russia, where he complains and declares that he regrets making a deal, is the position of the weak, and by no means the position of the strong.

Also, the dubious success of the summit is indicated by the fact that 49 African delegations arrived in the northern capital of Russia, including 17 heads of state, while 43 African leaders arrived at a similar summit in 2019.

Russia in its attitude towards African countries exactly copies the policy of the USSR. So, like the USSR, Putin has forgiven $24 billion in debt. In addition, Moscow also promised to supply free of charge from 25 to 50 thousand tons of grain to six countries - Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea.

The President of Zimbabwe refused this handout right during the summit. This is due to the fact that Vladimir Putin’s proposal could cost these countries tens of millions of dollars more than buying Ukrainian grain: the “gift” will not be enough to cover the entire food needs, and the rest will have to be purchased at a price that has increased in the absence of a grain deal.

Harsher criticism of Russia for withdrawing from the grain deal was voiced by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

He said: "We did not come here to ask for any gifts." The South African leader called the resumption of Russia's participation in the grain deal as a more important reason.

A similar position was voiced in the African Union, stating that the priority of African countries is precisely the resumption of the grain deal, since "the consequences affect the whole world, and especially Africa in socio-economic issues."

Be that as it may, the Russia-Africa summit held in St. Petersburg further secures the status of a pariah country for Russia. Undoubtedly, this summit is yet another success for the United States, which has been systematically lowering Russia's international status for almost 10 years now.

So, if the Geneva format (2016) on Syria provided for the participation of Russia and the United States, and, accordingly, the meetings of Lavrov and Kerry, then the Astana talks (2017) were held without the participation of the United States. Subsequently, the Astana troika (Russia, Turkey, Iran), which does not contain the United States, assumed obligations to implement the results of the negotiations.

Thus, the United States, having distanced itself from Russia, handed over the supervision of the Syrian issue to its faithful mediator Erdogan.

Despite this, until now, Russia continues to serve American interests in Syria and Libya.

Here it is worth making a small digression for those who believe that the US and Russia are competing in Syria.
The failure of this is manifested in the fact that on October 20, 2015, 20 days after the start of the Russian invasion of Syria, a memorandum was signed between Washington and Moscow to prevent possible incidents between military aircraft in the Syrian sky. Undoubtedly, two military aircraft in a war-torn sky can be in one of two possible relationships. They are either enemies or allies. It is obvious.

Thus, the US withdrawal from the Syrian peace talks was the first step towards lowering Russia's international status. Since then, the US has been communicating with Putin through its trusted intermediary, Erdogan.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Erdogan took the initiative to hold the Istanbul peace talks on Ukraine, the modest result of which was the conclusion of the so-called. "grain deal".

The Istanbul negotiations ended in failure, because in addition to an immediate ceasefire, they disputed the status of Crimea as Russian territory. Russia is still complaining to the whole world that it has withdrawn its troops from the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, hoping for the success of the negotiations in Istanbul.

It would seem that Erdogan is the ideal curator from the United States on the Russian issue. However, over the past year, we have witnessed a series of so-called. "stabbing a knife in Putin's back" by the President of Turkey.

So, almost from the first days of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Erdogan declares the territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea, as well as the need to start direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, taking this into account.

Even before the start of the conflict, and to this day, Turkey supplies Ukraine with weapons, in particular, the Bayraktar UAV played an important role in the failure of the Russian offensive from the first days of the war. Since August 2022, Türkiye has been supplying Kirpi armored personnel carriers. This is not to mention other forms of non-lethal military equipment and equipment, like dry rations, first aid kits and uniforms.

Throughout the year and a half of the conflict, Russia pretended not to notice such attacks from Turkey. This is due to the fact that Putin did not want to lose Turkey as a mediator in negotiations on Ukraine.

On July 7, 2023, Erdogan said that Ukraine deserved to be a member of NATO, while this issue acts on Russia like a red rag on a bull.

On the same day, Erdogan delivered the final blow to Russia, only this time it was a knife stab not in the back, but in the heart. After negotiations with Erdogan in Istanbul, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy returned to Ukraine from Turkey, along with 5 Azov commanders who were interned by Russia in Turkey, on the condition that they not return to Ukraine until the end of the armed conflict.

On July 17, 2023, Russia withdrew from the "grain deal" brokered by Turkey.

From the foregoing, it can be assumed that the United States decided to further lower Russia's international status, pointing out that from now on, Russia's destiny is summits and bilateral meetings with African dictators.

Nevertheless, the results of the Russia-Africa summit indicate that even African countries consider Putin and Russia to be toxic and disdain to have any serious political or even economic relations with it.

Deprived of ideology, Putin's Russia continued its path of descent from the international arena. The inferiority complex rooted in the Russian people, apparently, will not allow looking for an effective way out of the Ukrainian swamp, which was skillfully prepared by the United States for Russia.

This will lead to even greater military and economic exhaustion of Russia, which will cause an even greater decrease in its international status.

Now, for Russia, the turn has come to serve American interests in Africa, where the place of American curator Erdogan will be taken, for example, by Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who is no less devoted to US interests.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Fazyl Amzaev
Head of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Ukraine