Through plundering and collusion, Russia eyes Africa to diminish global isolation

KYIV -- For the third time in the past eight months, the Kremlin has sent its top diplomat on a tour of Africa in an attempt to rally support as Russia continues to lose international standing.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks in Khartoum last Thursday (February 9) with Sudanese officials, pledging support for their call to lift long-standing United Nations (UN) sanctions on the African nation.

At a joint news conference with Lavrov, Sudanese acting Foreign Minister Ali al-Sadiq emphasised the need for the two countries to co-operate at the UN and to push "for reform".

Lavrov also held talks with army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who in October 2021 led a military coup that derailed Sudan's transition to civilian rule and triggered cuts to crucial Western aid.

Lavrov's two-day visit was part of Moscow's efforts to shore up influence on the African continent amid broad international attempts to isolate Russia following its invasion of Ukraine last year.

The Russian diplomat's arrival in Sudan marked the final stop in his latest tour that included visits to Mali and Mauritania.

Lavrov has been crisscrossing the continent during the past eight months.

Last month his itinerary took him to Angola, Eswatini, Eritrea and South Africa. Last July he visited Egypt, Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia.

Seeking friends in Africa

Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to compensate for his nation's international isolation by attempting to strengthen his position in Africa, analysts say.

The diplomatic blitz also serves to boost Putin's ratings among Russians at home.

"For Putin, it is very important to show to his electorate that he is a global leader," Fedor Krasheninnikov, an independent Russian political analyst living in Lithuania, told the Washington Post in a February 2 article.

"We may laugh when we see Lavrov roaming around Africa, but what's important for Putin is that the part of Russian society that believes everything they say on TV watches the news and says, 'What a great Putin we have. There is no isolation.'"

Russia was focused on Africa even before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but the Kremlin's activities there have multiplied since the war started.

"Just look at their diplomatic activity," said Marta Oliynyk-Domocko, a Kyiv-based Africanist, pointing to Lavrov's visits to 11 African countries over the past eight months.

"That's a pretty significant number," she said.

"If you listen to the messages in Vladimir Putin's speeches, he is not talking to Western countries because he already understands very well that he will get nothing there," Oliynyk-Domocko said.

"He's talking to the countries of the global South -- to Africa, to the countries of Asia -- in order to build a coalition with them."

"Russia's global goal is to circumvent existing sanctions and avoid isolation," she said.

"Russia is haunted by this rosy dream where it becomes an alternative pole of world politics vis-à-vis the United States, and it is trying to unite the so-called global South."

Partnering with corrupt regimes

But rather than focus on building economic ties with African countries and investing in bilateral projects, the Kremlin is betting on support for corrupt regimes, said Oliynyk-Domocko.

"Russia selects potentially weak countries in the region, the ones with old dictators," she said. "Like attracts like. They share the same value system and it is easier to build co-operation with them."

Russia extends a co-operative hand to these troubled countries, for example, by lending its political strategists, who guide corrupt leaders to victory, or by reinforcing criminal regimes with Wagner Group mercenaries.

"For example, Russia is currently gaining ground in West Africa and trying to displace France there," said Oliynyk-Domocko. "Look at the Sahel. This is a region of Central Africa that is suffering from terrorism."

"At the periphery are grey areas where organised crime operates and controls drug trafficking. The Kremlin wants to take control of this region because it represents an opportunity to influence routes for drug trafficking and routes for illegal migration," she said.

"Accordingly, it is a trump card to pressure Europe."

"Russia is a very desirable partner for these dictatorial regimes, with a corrupt elite and violent ways of retaining power," said Maksym Razumny, a political scientist who lives in South Africa.

"Undoubtedly, these regimes, which control their own countries' natural resources, want to have Russian strategies for selling these raw materials, including through corrupt, shadowy schemes," he said.

'Like a parasite'

Russia is trying to ignite a global confrontation between North and South, playing on sentiment in African countries, said Maksym Palamarchuk, director of the Centre of Foreign Policy Studies at the National Institute for Strategic Studies Ukraine.

"There they are generally not very happy with the current world order because they believe that this order is unjust and that relatively speaking, all the money in the world is concentrated in the global north," he said. "Russia definitely wants to work on these sentiments."

However, far from all African countries are willing to support Russia, Oliynyk-Domocko pointed out.

"Lavrov was in Ethiopia last year, but the prime minister did not receive him," she said. "What's more, on his current trip he did not get to Botswana, where he really wanted to go."

In addition to its geopolitical goals, Russia wants to gain economic benefits from Africa, using the Wagner Group once again.

"With ... Wagner's help, Russia is consuming African countries' resources like a parasite," said Oliynyk-Domocko.

"There was an uproar last summer when information was leaked to the press that the Wagnerites were mining gold in Sudan and then loading it on planes and sending it to Russia to bolster the country's gold and foreign exchange reserves," she said.

"About 16 gold-laden planes. We know what these resources are used for -- they are used to fight in Ukraine."