On June 3, talks were held in Sochi between the current president of the African Union, Senegalese President Macky Sall, and Vladimir Putin. Macky Sall flew to Russia on a one-day visit and only for the sake of meeting with the Russian president. The head of the African Union Commission, M. Faki Mahamat, also flew with him to Sochi. He did not fly to Kiev as many had assumed, but returned to the African continent to participate in the activities of the West African sub-regional integration association ECOWAS.
Leaving the negotiating hall, Macky Sall said that he was “calmed by and very pleased with the exchange of views.” He also said he found the Russian president “committed and aware that the crisis and sanctions are creating serious problems for such weak economies as those in Africa.”
Immediately after the end of the visit, the media in the West called this visit “a diplomatic victory by Putin,” without much explanation as to what was meant. Attentive observers, however, immediately understood what had happened. It is, of course, not that a lone African president flew to Russia, thereby marking the “isolation” of our country proclaimed by the Western world as non-existent. Western leaders themselves have been in constant contact with the Russian president, in what is ostensibly known as “cutting off all the phones.” The French president frankly admitted that since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, he has spent 100 hours in negotiations with Vladimir Putin.
The reason behind the Western media quite rightly assessing this as a diplomatic victory for the Russian president is completely different. It consists in the policy of the West being defeated (because if there are winners, then there are also losers). First, to proclaim Russia as the culprit behind the looming famine in the world, about which so much has been written in recent months, and to connect it with Russia’s operation in Ukraine. And, second, if you do not provoke a large-scale famine on the planet, then at least launch this process.
In recent months, the United States and its satellites in Europe have gone out of their way to prove to Africans that Russia is an aggressor and the culprit for it being impossible to organize the export of 20 million tons of wheat from Ukraine that is urgently needed by developing countries, primarily African nations. The Russian president, who had previously stated that this was not true, on the eve of Macky Sall’s visit, gave a detailed interview in which he showed the groundlessness of the accusations against Moscow. Not twenty, but only around 5-6 million tons can be exported from Ukraine, which doesn’t affect the world grain market. Yet, there are no obstacles to it being exported from Russia, despite the West trying to make allusions to the contrary. Moreover, Vladimir Putin spoke in detail about five ways to export grain from Ukraine, but noted two important conditions: the lifting of sanctions against Russia and the demining of the Black Sea in the Odessa Region by those who mined it – that is, by the Ukrainians themselves.
But Putin’s diplomatic victory isn’t only the persuasiveness of Moscow’s arguments, turning into dust all of the anti-Russian propaganda accusing Russia of “organizing a famine.” But also that Africans themselves are becoming more and more convinced that the goal of the US and the EU is not to provide Africans with food, but to remove an extremely inconvenient competitor from the African continent. The Senegalese president himself showed dignity and courage to publicly say that the main problem today isn’t Russia blocking grain supplies (Moscow provides up to 30% of Africa’s needs and Ukrainian grain provides up to half), but the presence of sanctions against Russian banks, cutting them off from SWIFT, the boycott of Russian ships, their exclusion from European ports, and the unwillingness to insure them. He began saying this even before his visit to Moscow, when speaking before the EU Commission on Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, headed by the well-known Josep Borrell, famous for his anti-Russian and Russophobic statements.
Even worse for Europeans and all those trying to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia is that Macky Sall’s position actually reflects the real approach of the entire African Union and its member countries to the crisis in the food market. It is well understood here that the Ukrainian conflict affects the state of food markets, but at the same time, the main reason for its growth is Western policy itself, thoughtlessly and irresponsibly imposing sweeping sanctions on Russia.
African leaders cannot help but see something else. In addition to climate change and droughts, which hit, first of all, the Horn of Africa and the Sahara-Sahel region, there are more systemic problems. They consist of extremely unfavorable conditions for the provision of financial services by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to African countries, including for the development of agriculture: these are high interest rates and short terms for providing loans to an industry where business margins are low and payback is extremely doubtful in a changing climate. The West, despite its repeated promises to African countries to reform the World Bank and the IMF, does not make significant indulgences for Africans, as this would undermine their dependence upon them. Hence the hysteria by the US and the EU regarding Russia’s alleged guilt.
Yet, it is getting harder and harder to blame the health of the initiators of the anti-Russian campaign. Therefore we need to talk about President Vladimir Putin’s diplomatic victory. That’s the real truth.
Oleg Pavlov, a political observer, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.