On 19 and 20 March, some 40 African delegations travelled to Moscow ahead of the Russia-Africa summit scheduled for July in St Petersburg, to discuss cooperation and the fight against the influence of “former colonial powers”.
There is but one step between Vladimir Putin’s office and the Duma in central Moscow. It was at the Russian parliament’s headquarters, just a few metres from the Kremlin, that the conference “Russia-Africa in a multipolar world” was held from 19-20 March, the second of its kind devoted to strengthening cooperation between African and Russian parliamentarians.
The meeting came ahead of the next Africa-Russia summit, to be held in St. Petersburg at the end of July, four years after the Sochi summit.
The Soviet-style building was specially refurbished to accommodate the 40 African delegations. At the opening ceremony, Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin gave a speech on Russian and Western influences in Africa. “Dear colleagues, it is not Washington that should teach us how to build our friendly relations and plans for the future,” he said, defending Russian interests in Africa, which he said had “never been mercantile” unlike those of the US and European countries.
Distinguished guests
On Monday 20 March, Vladimir Putin spoke at the conference, between two meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is on an official three-day visit to Russia. The Russian president insisted on the need to cooperate more with African countries – one of the “priorities” of his foreign policy, before announcing the free delivery of grain to the continent if the food agreement between Russia and Ukraine is not renewed. He also said that African soldiers from some 20 countries were currently being trained in Russia.
Among the audience were many African parliamentarians. The president of Mali’s Conseil national de la transition (CNT), Colonel Malick Diaw, a member of the ruling junta in Bamako, which has made Russia its new ally, denounced the “perpetuation [of] domination” by “former colonial powers”. Ousmane Bougouma of Burkina Faso, president of l’Assemblée législative de la transition (TLA), also attended the conference, as did the vice-president of Chad’s CNT Malloum Yoboïdé Djeraki and the president of Guinea’s CNT Dansa Kourouma.
Simplice Mathieu Sarandji (Central Africa’s National Assembly president), Jacob Mudenda (Zimbabwe’s National Assembly spokesperson) and Hamoud Abdenasser (Algerian Council vice-president) also took part in round tables.
Guinea-Bissau’s parliament speaker Cipriano Cassamá met with Volodin on the conference sidelines, as did Sarandji, Diaw and Bougouma. After their meeting, Bougouma spoke of the creation of a bilateral working commission between Russia and Burkina Faso, and reiterated his willingness to cooperate with Moscow, saying: “The partnership with Russia is not a short-term phenomenon, it is a long-term choice based on trust.” The Duma president also met with Congolese Senate President Pierre Ngolo and South African National Assembly President Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
A Moroccan delegation, led by First Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Mohamed Sabbari, was also present in Moscow. “The countries of the African continent will never support people who have blood on their hands and want to teach us democracy,” he said in a virulent speech. “These countries colonised the African continent, but fortunately we managed to say goodbye to them.”
Indictments against neo-colonialism
At this interparliamentary conference, the influence of the West was often at the heart of the speeches. Swiss-Cameroonian activist Nathalie Yamb, already present at the Sochi summit in 2019, and Franco-Beninese Kémi Séba, two influencers known for their links with Russian networks, spoke at a conference titled ‘Neo-colonialism of the West: how to avoid history repeating itself?’
During their speeches, the various speakers criticised at length the actions of the former European colonisers as well as those of the US. “It is no secret that the independence that the colonial powers would have granted us was another form of oppression,” said Diaw, the president of the Malian CNT.
For Duma Deputy Chairman Pyotr Olegovich Tolstoy, there are only two possible camps. “The representatives of several countries told us that they were under pressure from the West not to come here,” he said.
Mudenda, the head of the Zimbabwean delegation, blasted the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s decision to issue an international arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin. “The UN Charter and international law are being manipulated as they see fit,” he said.
Source : The Africa Report