In a push to persuade SA towards changing its neutral stance in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine to a more firm stance, Moscow has warned Pretoria that secondary sanctions may be imposed by the West as a punishment for SA’s nonaligned stance on the conflict.
This echoes similar warnings by the SA Reserve Bank, which has warned that SA’s perceived closeness to Russia will make it impossible to finance any trade or investment flows or to make or receive any payments from correspondent banks in the
US dollar.
Secondary sanctions are applied to those countries that transact with the country subject to primary sanctions — in this case Russia.
SA has been under pressure from civil society organisations and its Western trade partners to condemn its Brics ally Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2022. Instead, SA has stated it is neutral in the conflict and has called for a peaceful resolution and a cessation of hostilities between the two East European nations.
But the country’s stance has been questioned by the US, whose SA ambassador, Reuben Brigety, in May accused SA of providing weapons to Russia in December 2022 when a Russian vessel docked at Simon’s Town Naval Base. SA has denied the accusation and launched an inquiry into the matter.
Warning
Speaking at an ANC-hosted dialogue on the Russia and Ukraine war on Wednesday, Russia’s ambassador to SA Ilya Igorevich Rogachev said the current geopolitical climate is not conducive for SA’s non-aligned stance in Moscow’s more than year-long conflict with Kyiv because the West, which includes SA’s largest trading partners including the US, Germany and the EU, have taken a position of either you are “with us or against us”.
“You cannot remain neutral; you will be punished by secondary sanctions ... this is the logic they [the West] will not allow. [You cannot] remain distant and neutral,” Rogachev said.
The government, however, has defended the nonaligned stance in the conflict, with the department of international
relations & co-operation head of public diplomacy, Clayson Monyela, saying that Pretoria’s position “will be vindicated because in any conflict the most powerful position is the call
for peace”.
“If we had taken a side it would have been difficult to convince the two capitals to receive us [the African heads of states] ... nonalignment should never be confused with neutrality ... we made a very deliberate decision based on our history.
“There is no threat on sanction against SA on this matter.”
Former ANC head of the international relations subcommittee Lindiwe Zulu said despite there being a cost to being non-aligned in the Russia and Ukraine conflict, SA would not be moved. “We say we are nonaligned because we want to be trusted and leaders ... we are not saying that it is not costly to us as a country,” Zulu said.
“We know what has happened to us with regards to supporting Palestine, Venezuela, Cuba ... it is always important to carry out our national interests.”
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