At the Brics conference in Russia presidents Cyril Ramaphosa and Vladimir Putin gleefully lauded Russia’s support “from the beginning” to end apartheid. Valued allies and friends they were, as the presidents intonated.
Both are wrong, of course. During former Russian president Boris Yeltsin’s first term, when I served as ambassador to the Russian Federation (1991-1996), his government described the ANC as a “terrorist organisation”, suspending all aid, military and otherwise, while entering full diplomatic relations with SA (1992).
Before then, of course, the Soviet Union made substantial contributions, though more recently these relations were driven mainly by ideological obsessions. The substantive, or transactional, importance of the relations is almost negligible. For example, only 0.4% of SA imports come from Russia.
Prof Gerrit Olivier
Strand
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