Despite consistent assurances made by high-ranking Russian officials that Africa is "in the mainstream of Russia's foreign policy" have not been substantiated by systematic noticeable completed projects, and worse serious lack of financial support for bilateral agreements, and this has necessitated the pulling out of a number of Russian companies from Africa.
Admittedly, the Government authorities, Inter-Governmental Commissions and the REC are primarily concerned with removing barriers for Russian exporters and opening up foreign markets for them in Africa. Reinforcement of positions of Russian exporters in Africa requires creation of certain conditions and the key task is penetration into the global market.
While acknowledging Africa's role on the international stage, it's immense economic potential and the huge endowed resources, Russia partly blamed African leaders for their own weak development policies, lack of transparency and accountability. What's particularly interesting in Africa is the level of attitudes and approach in addressing structural issues, combined with the general perception that development can only be carried out with external forces.
The new geopolitical thick division caused by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine contributed to the aggravation of the security context, especially in terms of food and human security, and deprived many African governments of their capacity to negotiate with multiple actors at different levels, as they are now constrained to pick sides and to act accordingly, like during the Cold War era. If the actual trends continue, I am not optimist at all about the possibility of getting closer to meeting this SDG.
According to the official transcript, Malian Assimi Goïta and Congolese Sassou-Nguesso, did not congratulate President Vladimir Putin for the successful re-election mid-March, but the Kremlin said the leaders by phone agreed to continue their contacts.