Putin is not winning the popularity war

What sort of friend deliberately allows you to go hungry? That’s perhaps a question which African leaders should be asking today when they meet Russian President Vladimir at the Russia-Africa Summit in St Petersburg.

That’s because Putin – in an effort to hit back at Ukraine – would not renew the Black Sea Grain Initiative, thereby choking supplies of grain to some of the very African countries whose leaders will be meeting him today.

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A Kenyan politician has already slammed the Kremlin for the move which, he said, hurts the poor, drought-stricken countries of the Horn of Africa.

Economists say, though, that most of the grain covered by the deal never went to Africa and that African countries were making alternative supply plans… which had significantly pushed up the price of grain for them, increasing poverty and malnutrition.

Moscow is looking to African countries – many of which have an uncomfortable relationship with the West – to shore up its global image and to increase its circle of friends.

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Yet, that may be easier said than done, given that just 16 African heads of state are due to attend the summit, compared to the 43 who were at the previous summit in the Russian city of Sochi in 2019.

Naturally, the Kremlin ascribes the poor turnout out to pressure from the West and, in particular, the United States… a claim which has a definite ring of truth, given that Washington’s Africa Growth and Opportunities Act is already being held as a sword over those who are in bed with Russia – that they will lose potential preferential trade links.

Those commercial ties with the West and the aid many African countries get cannot be replaced overnight – or at all – by the Russians. Money – especially the dollar and the euro – makes the world go around.

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