Vladimir Putin’s appeal to Africa may be waning

Vladimir Putin is hosting 22 African leaders in Moscow, offering an alternative partnership to what he portrays as an exploitative and colonial West. But his influence across the continent may be waning.

Putin woos Africa

Welcoming representatives from 48 African states, including 22 leaders, to the third Russia-Africa summit in Moscow on Wednesday, Vladimir Putin said they were partners in creating a more just, multipolar world. And he contrasted Russia’s approach to the continent with that of western states with a history of colonialism, which he claimed were trying to drive Africans back into debt bondage.

“Those who still live in the colonial past, fabulously, just fabulously enrich themselves at the expense of others. Any kind of unsightly and cynical means are used, including tariff wars, illegitimate sanctions, economic dictate, blackmail and interference in internal affairs,” he said.

The 22 leaders in attendance was an improvement on the last summit, held in 2023 in the wake of Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when only 17 showed up. But it fell far short of the 43 who came to the first summit in Sochi in 2019 and was less than half of the 50 who went to Beijing for the last China-Africa summit in 2024.

Putin is following Xi Jinping’s playbook in formalising his country’s relationship with Africa through regular summits, which offer opportunities for bilateral meetings with African leaders on the side. But Russia has less to offer Africa economically, with its $27 billion (€24 billion) in bilateral trade last year a fraction of the $348 billion in China-Africa trade or the $395 billion value of trade between Africa and the European Union.

Russia has a military presence on the continent, mostly through the Africa Corps, which succeeded the Wagner Group of mercenaries but is run directly from the defence ministry. But while the group has helped to keep military juntas in power in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, it has faced setbacks in recent months that cast doubt on the effectiveness of the security guarantee it purports to offer.

One motive behind Putin’s wooing of Africa is an effort to ease Russia’s diplomatic isolation over Ukraine, which has seen a cooling of relations not just with western Europe but with liberal democracies around the world. But the war is getting in the way of Putin’s outreach in Africa and undermining the impact of his economic gestures.

He told the summit in Moscow that Russia was ready to supply grain and fertiliser to more than 40 African countries, adding it had sent 13 million metric tonnes of agricultural products to the continent during the first nine months of this year. But the disruption of shipping in the Black Sea, where Russia has been attacking vessels and port infrastructure around Odessa, has left wheat and fertiliser bound for Africa stuck in storage facilities in Russia and Ukraine.

Moscow’s recruitment of more than 3,000 Africans to fight in the war against Ukraine has also caused outrage across the continent, with Kenya and Ghana demanding it stop. South Africa has warned its citizens against signing up and Botswana stopped eight of its nationals at the airport last August as they were being recruited by the Russian military.

International relations minister Phenyo Butale told Botswana’s parliament after the operation that the men were rescued moments before they were carried into what he called the machinery of war.

“Our people are lured, and only upon reaching the front lines do they realise they have placed themselves in the jaws of danger,” he said.

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