Putin Gives Africa $23bn Debt Relief

Russia has plans for Africa, a chess move beyond Ukraine

Putin closed the Russia/Africa Summit 2023 with the announcement of $23billion in historical debt relief. He promised to help Africa fight neocolonialism, increase trade, assist in setting up two-way diplomatic missions, and advocate for its inclusion in the G20.

Western media has yet to report on this meaningfully. Previously, Putin’s commitment to sending free grain to 6 African nations was ridiculed. It was highlighted that the annual meeting had less heads of State than in 2019 despite there remarkably being representatives from 49 countries during a war and sanctions.

The Value of Propaganda Versus Facts

Propaganda against the Russia/Africa Summit has been a schoolgirl spreading gossip in a room full of adults. It works, to a degree, because citizen idiocracy includes greying beards and saggy breasts that have mentally never grown up.

As a teenager, I was guilty too. I watched and read stereoypes. Bald baddies spoke with bad Russian accents. The CIA, MI6 and Chuck Norris were heroes saving our civilised world. I matured by understanding that good and evil isn’t isolated, that most politicians will say anything to enrich themselves, and that citizens are screwed everywhere.

Most of America and Britain never reached the same realisation, and, as consequence, unnecessary wars are waged in black and brown places that schools don’t teach on a map.

Here, propaganda is poor Western policy in face of an opposition that clearly has a plan. Correspondingly, I need a better metaphor.

The Chess Game

Africa’s response to the war in Ukraine is reminiscent of the World Chess Federation where a game is being played though the strategy is unclear.

The Federation issued a statement against Russia’s move into Ukraine, in contrast to Russians having been its leadership the past 28 years.

In the 2022 vote for presdiency of the Federation, Ukraine’s Andrii Baryshpolets was supported by Germany in seemingly allied fashion. But he only got 16 of the 173 votes.

Instead, Russia’s Arkady Dvorkovich was re-elected. Dvorkovich has been publicly anti-war but he’s Russia's ex-deputy prime minister and made an Indian his deputy (think BRICS). It’s possible that personal sanctions by the USA will force him from his position, but it may not change the heart of the organisation. It didn’t when his predecessor was sanctioned over Syria.

Geopolitical Chess Game

Russian-speaking people were being oppressed and killed in Ukraine, thus Russia can argue that its invasion is actually a rescue mission. Similarly, it can label it as defence against NATO aggression. But those are only moves on the global board when considering the efforts being made to weaken the dollar.

The Russia/Africa Summit is another move. Some African leaders will be pawns, but, in their world, they’re being helped to be Kings and Queens. All would like to be treated as equals instead of spoken down to. They have never forgotten colonialism, many believing that it’s now called neoliberalism.

Three days ago, Yevgeny Prigozhin, boss of the Wagner mercenary group, was seen in St Petersburg after having a meeting with Freddy Mapouka, a presidential advisor in the Central African Republic (CAR). The following day, on Telegram, Prigozhin supported the coup in Niger:

“What happened in Niger is nothing other than the struggle of the people of Niger with their colonisers. With colonisers who are trying to foist their rules of life on them and their conditions and keep them in the state that Africa was in hundreds of years ago. Today, this is effectively gaining their independence. The rest will, without doubt, depend on the citizens of Niger and how effective governance will be, but the main thing is this: They have got rid of the colonisers.”

At the Russia/Africa 2023 Summit, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni made a powerful statement towards Africa getting a better deal than it had in the past.

Russia, like China, is speaking in a respectful manner that Africa admires. It’s doings things they want.

Next up is ‘Africa and Russia sign the St Petersburg Declaration’.