The United States is trying to impose its rules of the game on the African continent and keep African countries in the grip of a neo-colonial order. Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko said this on Thursday at a meeting with Jacob Mudenda, chairman of the National Assembly (parliament) of the Republic of Zimbabwe.
"We very much appreciate that the Zimbabwean leadership remains committed to the development of bilateral relations and mutually beneficial cooperation with Russia. Your country is confidently resisting the unprecedented scale of pressure of the collective West led by the United States, their blatant attempts to dictate their will," Matviyenko said.
"The United States is trying to keep African countries in the grip of an order that is neo-colonial in nature, to dominate everyone, to impose its rules of the game," she added.
Matviyenko cited the example of the US parliamentarians' bill on "countering Russia's malevolent activities in Africa." According to the speaker of the Federation Council, such initiatives cause bewilderment, "if not to say more".
Earlier, at a meeting with his US counterpart Joe Biden, President of South Africa Cyril Ramaposa stated that it would be unfair to punish the states of Africa for their connections with Russia and also expressed his concern in connection with the preparation of a corresponding bill by the US lawmakers.
This document was submitted to Congress on March 31 of this year. At the end of April, the House of Representatives approved it. After that, it was submitted to the Senate for consideration. According to its authors, the bill is aimed at "countering Russia's malevolent activities in Africa". This would imply agreements, disagreeable to Washington, and cooperation between Russia and Africa in a variety of areas - from trade, investment and extraction of natural resources to military-technical cooperation. The bill talks of the need to apply "punitive measures" against "guilty" African states. Specific sanctions will be developed on the basis of this document by the US State Department, they should be comparable to the restrictions imposed by Washington against Moscow in connection with Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Federation Council
Based on materials from TASS