Mines, hydrocarbons and weapons. Moscow's plans in Africa
Russia is focusing on three strategic sectors: the mining industry, the energy sector and especially the defense industry. All this under the objective of Moscow to increase its "geopolitical footprint" on the African continent by strengthening trade relations and dependence with countries where it could later have preferential and strategic access to mineral and hydrocarbon resources, thus disputing primacy with the West. The Russian Federation is a key player of undoubted weight in the current international order. Russia has fully entered into the new post-colonial economic distribution in Africa. But those who know the history of the Black Continent also know that the Russian presence is not a new phenomenon.
Moscow's new strategic agenda on the African continent is focused on recovering the prestige acquired in the last century. This reputation is still linked to the image of decades past from the time of the Cold War. It was during those years of confrontation between blocks that the USSR acquired a leading role in Africa, turning the continent into yet another stage in the geopolitical struggle between the powers of the time, namely between China, the USSR and the United States.
During the Cold War, the USSR supported the liberation movements in the world and backed the philo-communist insurgent guerrillas fighting in various decolonization scenarios in Africa such as Angola, Mozambique, Algeria and what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Once the desired independence was obtained and the decolonization processes were completed, Moscow sought to strengthen its influence in Africa and continued to support communist regimes while providing its armies and guerrillas with a large amount of military material. The USSR was eager to maintain its world prestige and to provide geopolitical counterweights to the unquestionable influence of its greatest rival, the United States, and the growing influence of China. The Kremlin-friendly African countries needed a sponsor to support them, at least militarily, in order to consolidate their power and eliminate any shadow of opposition in the midst of the decolonization and post-colonial processes.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, Moscow's influence disappeared. The nature of post-Soviet Russia's relations with Africa took on a different and renewed dynamic under Vladimir Putin. The president gave a strong impulse to these economic, political and military relations especially from 2005 and definitively from Western sanctions in 2014.
A revealing fact of Russia's involvement with Africa is that, at the time of the official dissolution of the USSR in 1991, more than 50,000 African students had passed through the classrooms of Soviet universities, while some 200,000 people had received military and technical advice from USSR personnel on African soil.
Russia's strong interest in Africa has been revitalized since the early 2000s. Although the first five years of Putin's mandate were not particularly relevant to Russian-African relations, they focused on cooperation in education and health. It is from 2005 onwards that two-way trade interaction is gradually growing. In any case, the turning point is marked by the sanctions of the United States and the European Union against Russia after the Crimean crisis in 2014. It is at this point that Russia wakes up from its lethargy and decides to bet on Africa, as well as on other scenarios to which it did not pay so much attention before, such as the Middle East and Asia.
Moscow seeks to strengthen ties with the rest of the world and ensure markets and export opportunities for Russian products. Proof of this international commitment, particularly to Africa, are the continuous visits of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to African countries in recent years, culminating in the Russia-Africa summit (the first of its kind) in 2019 in Sochi with the heads of state or government of 43 African countries.
However, Russia's weight in Africa remains small compared to its competitors like the United States and China, which have trade figures with Africa in 2018 of $39 billion and $170 billion respectively, compared to Russia's modest $18 billion. Other competing countries are India, Brazil, Turkey, Iran and South Korea, which offer serious competition to Moscow. However, despite Russia's trade figures, there are several sectors where Moscow has a much stronger and competitive position.
1. Raw materials and nuclear energy
Russian companies have turned to the extraction of mineral raw materials such as platinum, coltan and diamonds. An interesting fact is that around 30% of Russia's African imports are agricultural, especially cocoa, fruit and coffee. Likewise, in Zimbabwe, Russia is mining one of the largest platinum metal deposits in the world. The Russian mining giant Alrosa is carrying out a large diamond mining project in Angola.
Another key point of Russian presence in Africa is the exploitation and extraction of fossil raw materials such as natural gas and oil in countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and Mozambique. The so-called "Russian nuclear diplomacy" also stands out, having signed agreements on advice and construction of nuclear plants in Rwanda, Zambia, Sudan and South Africa.
2. Geopolitical Footprint
Increasing its share of influence at the global level is key for Moscow, and to this end it is determined to support African governments through military advice, but also in economic and technical matters. In addition, Russia has written off many countries on the continent, external debt worth more than $20 billion, thus acquiring a certain image of being the savior of Africa's weak economies.
On this level of action, Russia has a commitment to several countries on the continent, in which it has deployed humanitarian aid and cooperation actions, especially in the fight against Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Guinea.
3. Arms industry
One of Russia's foreign trade strengths as far as Africa is concerned is arms sales and advice on security and defense issues. Although Africa is not the main market for Moscow's arms exports, it is very important from an African point of view, since 35 per cent of imported arms are from Russia.
Russia is aware of the importance of its strategic positioning in arms sales in Africa and that is why, since 2015, more than 20 bilateral military cooperation agreements have been signed with African states such as Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and Sudan. Other good buyers of Russian material are Angola, Egypt, Algeria and Sudan.
4. Media influence
At the Russian-African summit in Sochi, Vladimir Putin emphasized cooperation in communication and information with Africa and is already working with African news agencies. Future agreements on content exchange and journalist training with local media will probably be explored, with the consequent increase in media influence that this entails. Moscow is expanding the availability of its state information and communication networks such as Russia Today and Sputnik, and is already planning to open representative offices in Nigeria, Senegal and Ethiopia.
5. Increased presence of Russian companies
Africa is a perfect place for the deployment of an experienced Russian business sector such as energy exploitation and distribution where we can see leading international state-owned companies such as Gazprom, Rosneft, Lukoil or Rosatom. These companies have already been active for years in several African countries, such as Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Nigeria and Uganda.
Africa, once again, has become the chessboard of geopolitical struggle between global powers. The African continent didn't arouse particular interest in Josef Stalin's Kremlin during the early days of the USSR in the 1930s and 1940s. A turning point was observed when, after the death of the Soviet Union leader, Moscow's desire for influence in Africa progressively increased. The first opportunity in Africa that the USSR had after World War II to take an active role in the new geopolitical scenario that was being drawn in the world was with Egypt and the crisis unleashed by the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company by Nasser.
The USSR, faced with the hostility of the Western bloc, offered financial and technical assistance to, among other things, promote the mega construction of the Aswan Dam that would change the life of the Nile and all of Egypt forever. Without a doubt, the height of the Soviet presence in Africa was reached in the 1970s when, together with Soviet satellite countries such as Cuba or the GDR (East Germany), it managed to project its power and strength onto the African scene.
The nature of relations between African countries and the communist or eastern bloc focused on support and advice on economic and technical issues. At the same time, there was significant support in the political and military areas with the presence on the ground of specialized advisors and diplomatic missions highly involved with national governments. These African governments that were in the Soviet sphere enjoyed economic and military support from Moscow in dealing with internal and external threats. With these actions, Moscow was reinforcing related regimes that, well advised and armed, were facing a scenario very much given to coups d'état.
Russia seeks to revive the ties that were paused in the 1990s, and the best evidence of this is the continuous bilateral and multilateral summits between Russia and African countries, as well as presidential or ministerial tours. Also, indicative of this willingness are the dynamics of military collaboration. Africa has acquired a strategic weight of great relevance for Russia because it is a large market where it can acquire large quantities of energy and mineral resources, but also a large space where it can commercialize its arms products and where it can offer its "expertise" in matters of military cooperation.
Likewise, other projects continue to be maintained, such as the sale of products from the Russian defense industry, especially light and heavy military material, with the dispatch of arms shipments, highly appreciated in Africa for their versatility and low price. The economic component is increasingly an important part of Russia's investment in Africa and the final motivation for the Kremlin's foreign policy is fundamentally strategic.
Moscow is trying to build alliances with national leaders, and more extensively with political, military and business figures by offering a "package" of long-term political and military advice and support to African rulers. In return, Russia seeks access to African markets, both to sell its technology and to exploit mineral and energy resources, as well as transnational railway and road-building agreements. This new Russia with greater aspirations for global influence must see cooperation and understanding with other countries as a guiding point in this new strategic agenda that, without a doubt, seeks to recover in the medium to long term the hegemony that Moscow lost 30 years ago.
But there is also an ideological dimension to this agenda. Putin and the vast majority of Russians see their country as a great power that must re-emerge, with interests all over the world, extending its networks of influence from its close neighborhood in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, to the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Assuming the role of an indispensable player in world affairs, Putin seeks to expand and strengthen Russia's presence in the world once and for all and to regain the voice that the Soviet Union once lost.
One of the main premises guiding all these new lines of action by Russia, not only in Africa but also in other global scenarios, is to counteract the geopolitical weight of the West in areas of strategic importance. In addition, Russia seeks to fill the geopolitical emptiness that its competitors were leaving in Africa. Because, in theory of international relations, when one power abandons a strategic area, another occupies that gap. This is why Vladimir Putin is reactivating the Russian agenda in Africa, seeking to consolidate its share of power and thus increase its geopolitical footprint.
Putin's Russia draws muscle beyond Ukraine, Georgia or Syria, although silently as if it were a fine rain, the Kremlin has been penetrating certain and well-selected African markets for years, becoming an indispensable ally for many countries where it seeks to control energy resources and consolidate itself as a leading ally in security and defense issues. This apparent "new Cold War", where Africa once again becomes the scene of international competition between powers for leadership, leads us to see an increasingly assertive Russia in establishing economic, political and military ties. There is no doubt that this return of Russia to Africa is part of a very particular agenda of Vladimir Putin to restore Russia's image and reputation as a great power in the past.