This year’s Russia-Africa summit is the second in a row. The first took place four years ago in Sochi.
Photo: Yulia PYKHALOVA
This summit in St. Petersburg has already been compared to the famous 1957 World Youth Festival in Moscow. At that time, thousands of delegates from Asia and Africa arrived in the previously closed USSR. Then began our “turn to the equator”: participation in the liberation of the southern continent from colonial slavery, the opening of universities for black students, the work of Soviet military experts from Mali to Somalia.
We traveled in this luggage for many years, even when contacts with Africa collapsed in the nineties. And now we are returning to our previous positions.
This year’s Russia-Africa summit is the second in a row. The first took place four years ago in Sochi, at a completely different time. There were fears: No one would come to the current summit: U.S. diplomats called dozens of countries, demanding to “ban and don’t let go.”
But the world has long been multipolar. Assimi Goita, a 40-year-old patriotic military man who seized power in the Republic of Mali after the former pro-French government was powerless to deal with international terrorists, flew to St. Petersburg. Next to him is another guest, the 35-year-old leader of neighboring Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traore. He also overthrew the previous government in his country, thieving and pro-Western. This is a new Africa: young, daring, not interested in what the “white gods” of Washington, Paris, London say there…
Assimi Goita at Pulkovo airport. Photo: Pyotr Kovalev/TASS photo agency
“Russia is ready to supply Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic, Eritrea with 25-50 thousand tons of grain, to ensure free delivery of these products to consumers,” Vladimir Putin said at the plenary session.
Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes the guests of the summit.
Photo: Yulia PYKHALOVA
Almost all the countries he named, like us, are under absurd Western sanctions. Well, we have something to answer. The summit is not over yet, but national diplomats already promise to open embassies in all African countries (surprisingly: in some strategically important points, such as Niger or Somalia, there are still no Russian diplomatic missions).
And most importantly: we intend to solve the main problem, Africa’s food security, without the involvement of shady Western partners, reminiscent of mafia “board companies” in the 1990s. It is not for nothing that Russian food and fertilizer manufacturers rebuilt huge pavilions at the forum, around which guests from the southern continent crowded.
A new Africa reached the summit in St. Petersburg: young, daring.
Photo: Yulia PYKHALOVA
There were also unexpected delegates. Here comes to our stand “KP” … an Orthodox nun from Kenya. Dark-skinned, wearing a black robe, he speaks Russian. The Russian Orthodox Church is opening more and more parishes on the continent: after all, while the West leans toward non-traditional values, our creed is as unshakable as it was centuries ago.
The Russian Orthodox Church is opening more and more parishes on the Black Continent, and the Orthodox guests from Africa looked quite harmonious in the forum.
Photo: Yulia PYKHALOVA
By the way, many guests of this forum of African countries speak the Russian language well. Professor Atef Hassainen of the University of Assiut (Egypt) in the years of perestroika studied at the famous “Mendeleevka”, the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology (now the Moscow Technical University of Art). And now he has created a Center for the Study of the Russian Language in his city. There are 1000 people studying there at the same time. But Atef is sure: “It’s not enough!” The potential for humanitarian ties between our states is much greater.
We asked Professor Hassainen with a trap: “Has anything changed more in our country in the 35 years that have passed since your studies?”
He winks:
– I was surprised – where are all the Russian cars? Where are your beautiful “Muscovites” and “Zhiguli”? Why some foreign cars?
We reassure: they say, the production of “moscovites” has now been revived. In a few more years you will come, everything will return to normal…
The summit in St. Petersburg has already been compared to the famous 1957 World Youth Festival in Moscow.
Photo: Yulia PYKHALOVA
Yes, the story has taken another turn. In reality, little has changed since 1957. Only before we took a volume of Marx-Lenin to Africa, and now we bring the Bible and the Koran. And also – higher education, high technology, mutually beneficial trade. But Africa also has something to give: resources, support in the international arena, a potentially almost unlimited market. In short, this friendship is for a long time.
