African leaders will look to Russian President Vladimir Putin for concrete promises on grain supplies at a summit starting on Thursday, with some also likely to seek clarity and assurances on the future of Wagner mercenaries in the continent.
The gathering in St Petersburg will take place 10 days after Putin quit the Black Sea agreement that had enabled Ukraine — like Russia, a major grain exporter — to ship food out of its southern ports despite the 17-month-old conflict.
Putin wrote in a pre-summit article on the Kremlin website that the arrangement had been “shamelessly” exploited by US and European trading firms and less than 3% of the grain shipped had reached the poorest countries — ignoring the wider effect of the deal in pushing down prices worldwide.
Putin says Russia is expecting a record harvest this year and is ready to fill the gap for African countries by supplying grain, both commercially and for free.
Russia has just more than 3-million tonnes of grain available in a state intervention fund, but Russian and foreign analysts said they expected only symbolic amounts to be dispersed free as aid.
Russia is already exporting record quantities of wheat, but says its ability to sell it internationally is hampered by Western sanctions affecting banking and insurance.
For Putin, prevented from travelling to many countries because of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, the event is a chance to hold centre stage before leaders from an entire continent.
Russia says 49 African delegations will take part, but only 17 heads of state — sharply down from the 45 in 2019.
For the most part, African states have refrained from criticising Russia over the grain deal, in keeping with their refusal since the start of the war to condemn Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Some have had strong ties with Moscow since the cold war; many are sympathetic to Putin’s idea of countering US dominance in a new “multipolar” world order.
Behind the scenes, some countries are expected to seek more information from Putin about the future of the Wagner mercenary group after it staged a short-lived mutiny in Russia in June.
Wagner provides security muscle for governments in the Central African Republic and Mali.
The US this week imposed sanctions on three Malian officials, including the defence minister, accusing them of making their people vulnerable to Wagner’s “destabilising activities and human rights abuses” while helping it fund its operations in Ukraine.
In May, Burkina Faso rejected an accusation by neighbouring Ghana that it too had hired Russian mercenaries.
Reuters
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.