The West is exerting enormous pressure on African countries to refuse economic cooperation with Russia. The statement was made on Monday by Oleg Ozerov, the head of the secretariat of the "Russia-Africa Partnership Forum" and Ambassador-at-Large for the Russian Foreign Ministry, at the round table "Interregional Cooperation of Subjects of the Russian Federation with African Countries" in the Federation Council.
"We see that enormous pressure is put on our African partners, including South Africa, from where their hesitation, inconsistency, often in order to tear them away from Russia and close any opportunity to develop economic relations with us," he said.
At the same time, Ozerov stated that despite this pressure, half of the African states walk away from condemning Russia in connection with the situation around Ukraine and refuse to join the anti-Russian sanctions. He called to intensify all efforts to act in a coordinated manner and propose to the African side, including during the Russia-Africa summit, a program of action.
In this regard, the diplomat welcomed the upcoming visit of Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko to Africa. "[US Secretary of State Antony] Blinken has already toured seven countries, now [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz is going to South Africa and Senegal for no reason <...>. It is clear that formally they talk there about energy, but in fact it will be about pushing African states to refuse to cooperate with Russia," he said.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS