ANC leaders still place their trust and confidence in Moscow, says Shannon Ebrahim.
Pretoria - When President Jacob Zuma believed he had been poisoned in August last year, it was to Russia he went to get medical confirmation – that is the level of trust and confidence ANC leaders still place in Moscow. This is understandable given that Moscow trained and armed ANC freedom fighters when the West was still calling Nelson Mandela a terrorist.
A number of current ANC leaders got their university education in Moscow, including Minister of Small Business Lindiwe Zulu. This was no small feat given that comrades had to learn Russian first before they could commence their studies.
Russia supported liberation movements across the continent, and by 1991, 50 000 Africans had studied in Moscow.
One of Moscow’s most prestigious schools was named Patrice Lumumba – after the Soviet-supported Congolese independence leader executed in 1961.
It must have been disappointing for the ANC that Russia seemingly lost interest in Africa following the collapse of the Soviet Union, focusing its attention on the former Soviet republics, Europe and China. After all, the Cold War was over and the need to spread socialist ideology died with it.
But the emergence of Vladimir Putin as Russia’s leader in 1999 brought a slow but steady renewal of Russian interest in Africa. The interest was not so much the scramble for resources that obsessed other global powers, as Russia has energy reserves and minerals.
It was the growing realisation that it needed to exercise some control over the supply of oil and natural gas from Africa to Europe. The strategic imperative in Africa was to, as far as possible, control Europe’s alternative sources of energy in order to keep it dependent on Russian gas. This agenda led Russia’s Gazprom to sign an agreement with the Algerian state gas company Sonatrach – a partnership which would control nearly 40 percent of Europe’s gas consumption. Russia’s secondary strategic interest in Africa has been seen as a market for its arms, particularly at a time when arms sales to China are dropping off given that China has itself become an arms exporter.
From 2000-12, Russia’s trade with Africa increased 10-fold, much of the trade having been in armaments. In terms of Africa’s human security agenda this has been problematic in that the recipients of Russian arms have often been governments which have used them against their own civilians.
Sudan is a good example, where Russian jet fighters and helicopters have been used to bomb civilian villages in South Sudan, and more recently in Blue Nile and South Kordofan.
Khartoum’s orders for Russian military hardware have been for the express purpose of waging war against civilians in its peripheries, and Russia has made this possible.
In 2001, Russia supplied Khartoum with 10 MIG-29SE jet fighters worth $120 million. In 2006 it sold another 14 jet fighters, in 2008 another six, and in 2013 another 14, as well as 12 attack helicopters. This has been the darker side of Russia’s post-Cold War involvement in Africa. As with any arms industry, not all Russian arms sales have been negative. It has supplied Nigeria with Cobra attack helicopters last year to fight Boko Haram, when the US refused to, and is training Nigerian special forces in counter terrorism.
Russia has strengthened ties with Uganda in recent years, selling fighter jets in 2011 for $744m, and winning a bid to build a $3 billion oil refinery.
Last September Russia also signed a $3bn deal with Zimbabwe to create the country’s largest platinum mine. This type of investment has not received the type of publicity that surrounds China’s investment surge on the continent.
The greatest coup of all will be if Russia wins the bid to build South Africa’s nuclear power plants worth $100bn. Russia has offered South Africa a 20-year loan, with repayments to start when the first plants are operational, possibly in 2023.
According to spy cables leaked to Al Jazeera, Russia has launched a satellite system in partnership with South Africa known as Project Condor, to provide surveillance of the entire continent.
On the softer side, Russia has shown its benevolence to Africa by forgiving $20bn worth of African debt, specifically the debt of Zambia, Mozambique, and Tanzania – countries which had strong ties to the former Soviet Union.
Russia also has more UN peacekeepers in Africa than France and the UK combined.
Putin has welcomed the suggestion of AU Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Zuma to open an AU office in Moscow. This would be the first AU representative office opened anywhere outside of the continent other than those based in multilateral organisations.
Beijing doesn’t even have an AU representative office, even though it built the AU headquarters building in Addis Ababa.
The fact that the AU will have a presence in Moscow is indicative of the continent’s interest in building stronger ties with their former Cold War ally.
* Shannon Ebrahim is Independent Media’s Foreign Editor.