Putin tries to turn Africa against the West

After Vladimir Putin’s speech at the Brics global summit in South Africa, there can be no doubt that the Russian president has set his sights set on wooing the nations of Africa. In an effort to present Russia as a cooperative ally to, and leader of, the Brics bloc (currently made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, but with 40 more aspiring members) Vladimir Putin pinned the blame on the West’s ‘illegal sanctions regime’ for the global food supply problems experienced by many countries in the wake of his invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian president acknowledged the grain issue was ‘hurting the most vulnerable poor countries first’, but suggested that ‘Russia is deliberately obstructed in the supply of grain and fertilisers abroad and at the same time [the West] are hypocritically accusing us of the current crisis situation on the world market’. 

That the grain shortages have been caused by Russia’s refusal to extend a deal allowing the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea – which has hit countries in Africa in particular – was something he, unsurprisingly, did not mention.