Putin tells African leaders Russia is their partner against ‘colonial’ West

President Vladimir Putin has told African representatives that Russia is their premier partner, accusing Western nations of retaining a colonial mindset aimed at exploiting the continent’s natural wealth and using financial debt to suppress development.

The Kremlin chief delivered his remarks at the third Russia-Africa Summit in Moscow, a two-day event bringing together government delegations from 48 countries.

He is expected to hold one-on-one talks with many of the 22 attending African leaders, covering topics ranging from trade and security to arms contracts and grain shipments.

First launched in 2019, the conference forms part of a strategic push to enhance Russian political, economic, and military clout across the continent.

Moscow’s presence is currently backed by active Africa Corps paramilitary fighters, expanding state media and cultural projects, and state-owned enterprises pursuing projects from mining to power generation.

Courting African leaders and others from the Global South has been an important strand of Moscow’s strategy to counterbalance Western pressure on the world stage over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Africa is increasingly asserting itself as one of the key players in the global economy and politics.

“However, the emergence of a multipolar world is, of course, no easy task; it faces resistance from countries that are not prepared to accept this reality: those who are accustomed to thinking in terms of their colonial past and to enriching themselves fabulously,” Putin, whom Western critics regularly accuse of trying to leverage Africa’s colonial past to Moscow’s own benefit, told the summit.

He did not name the countries he had in mind.

But he went on to speak about what he called “active attempts by Western countries” to drive Africans back into debt bondage and to force them to accept much-needed financial resources on predatory terms, which he said slowed their long-term development.

By contrast, Putin said Russia was ready to share its know-how, including digital know-how, and to localise production rather than simply buy raw materials.

“Our business does not engage in the predatory, neo-colonial exploitation of natural and human resources, but rather expands the processing of raw materials locally, thereby creating new jobs and generating tax revenue,” said Putin, whose paramilitary forces have been accused by Western governments of propping up military juntas like the one in Mali to try to shore up Moscow’s own geopolitical influence and squeeze out former colonial powers like France – claims Moscow rejects.

Putin told the summit that Russia championed greater African influence in the IMF and World Bank.

He said Russia was ready to embark on joint transport and agricultural infrastructure projects.

A record number of Africans, around 40,000, are currently studying at Russian universities, he added.

Moscow also stood ready to supply grain and fertiliser to more than the 40 African countries which currently receive them, Putin said.

Russia had supplied 13 million metric tones of agricultural products to Africa in the first nine months of this year alone, he added.