By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Kremlin has accused western countries of pressuring African leaders to stay away from the Russia-Africa Summit this week, saying only few African heads of government are participating at the Petersburg event.
Yuri Ushakov, a top foreign policy adviser to Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said only 21 heads of state and government are attending the second summit, a significant drop from the first Russia-Africa summit in 2019 which had 43 Presidents in attendance.
Those absent includes leaders of several big African countries, including Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu and Kenya’s William Ruto, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame as well as Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to senior officials from those countries.
Some of Africa’s largest economies are sending their heads of state, including Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Senegal’s Macky Sall. Ethiopia’s prime minister Abiy Ahmed will also attend.
The list also includes countries such as Mali and the Central African Republic that are clients of the Wagner paramilitary group, which Russia says will continue to deploy in the region despite its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed mutiny last month.
The poor participation is seen as a blow to Putin, who has used Russia’s strong ties with Africa and sensitivity to his war’s effect on global agricultural markets as a wedge to rally sympathy for his stance on Ukraine.
South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to lead an African initiative aiming to broker an end to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
One of the members of the delegation who met Putin last month — Zambia’s president Hakainde Hichilema is also not attending the summit, while five countries will not be represented at all.
“There is an understanding that sticking your neck out to support Russia might not be a good idea when so many counties may need financial support and bailouts in the next few years,” said Murithi Mutiga, programme director for Africa at Crisis Group.
Many countries remained “instinctively non-aligned”, he said. “There was a perception that this was tacit support for Russia but I think this was not correct: it was more to avoid being drawn in,” he said, adding that support for Russia had faded further with its flagging war effort.
Ushakov said several countries whose leaders would not attend the summit were sending foreign ministers and deputy prime ministers instead, and hailed the list as a triumph in the face of US-led attempts to isolate Russia.
“Despite the backlash from western countries and the pressure they imposed, which was at times very fierce, we are still holding the second Russia-Africa summit in this situation,” Ushakov said, according to Interfax. “The Africans’ participation confirms their determination to strengthen ties with our country, whatever the circumstances.”
