After the achievements of the Russian Armed Forces in Syria, victories of diplomacy and political institutions, as well as a proven ability to withstand pressure from the West, led by the United States, states are increasingly turning to Moscow, looking for a global alternative. The leaders of the Middle East were the first to paved the way to the high offices of the Kremlin, African leaders are now showing similar trends.
The formal start for the current unprecedented rapprochement has been given 9 October 2017 of the year, when the CAR made a cautious request for military-political cooperation to Russia against the background of successes in Syria. The positive results of the assistance provided bore fruit and soon prompted the leadership of neighboring Sudan to come to Moscow with a similar initiative..
Then, as Moscow's authority grows, the geography of contacts began to expand and by the spring 2018 years, requests for the dispatch of Russian military personnel were received from a number of African states - Chad, Niger, Had, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, though, that all these are former European colonies. At the same time, Moscow was establishing a dialogue with the “coasts of two oceans” - Mozambique, Angola and Eritrea, strengthening contacts with a number of other countries.
The result of several years of painstaking work was the first-ever Pan-African summit, which opened its doors in Sochi 23 October. On it, Russia managed to do something, that no one in the 21st century succeeded - to gather all the states of the continent for dialogue, without exception. The southern "capital" received delegations from 54 African states, 43 of which were represented by heads of countries and governments, not excluding the current head of the African Union, the president of Egypt.
essentially, in Africa, Russia repeated the diplomatic success of the Middle East - establishing relations with a full list of traditionally warring parties. And this, in turn, proved, that Moscow's return to the continent is not about "intervention", how Western media present it, but to Africa's request for a global alternative.
Regional instability persisted for decades on the continent by the West artificially - through the support of armed confrontations between various tribal groupings, artificial split along confessional lines, a wave of confrontations between "Christian" and "Muslim" groups, as well as the export of the "ideology of terror" worked out in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Besides, the financial "bridle" was also used - the IMF credit "noose", “Recommendations” for Central Banks and Control over Currency Issues.
A clear proof of the above is the example of modern France and its policy towards 14 former colonies. Since the 1960s, from the point of view of power control, Paris has spent not a few units in its "own" zone of influence, and dozens of coups, from a financial point of view - introduced an enslaving agreement to create the West African and Central African franc, i.e. currencies, which is still printed under the control of the French Central Bank.
Participation in the agreement obliges these countries to transfer a significant part of their reserves as "hostages" to French banks. Since the 1960s, Central Banks were required to keep 100% of their foreign exchange reserves in a special operating account of the French Treasury, from 1973 of the year - 65%, from 2005 of the year - 50%. That is, half of the proceeds from the export of raw materials are still credited to 14 African countries to the accounts of the Bank of France, and, although formally the reserves belong to them, Paris is actively investing these funds in the purchase of its own national debt.
To always have this reserve, France does not allow its "partners" to withdraw from the "fund" more 20% from last year's income, and even these funds are not allocated in the form of a transfer, and through a loan with an interest rate of 2% to 6%. That is, the "former" African colonies are not just obliged to sponsor the French economy, but also forced to take their own money at interest.
Besides, decisions in African central banks are made unanimously, French officials are on board, the African franc is pegged to the euro, as a result, the Central Bank not only does not determine interest rates, unable to devalue, but also doomed to keep the export price low in exchange for poverty, since “wrong” decisions in the voting are blocked by an analogue of the veto.
Other "developed" countries do their work on the continent in a similar way, and the level of neocolonialism itself can be estimated on the basis of two quotes. The first was pronounced by Jacques Chirac at the beginning 2008 of the year, after leaving the presidency: “We must admit, that a significant part of the funds comes to our banks from the exploitation of the African continent, without them France would become a third world country ". And the second was pronounced by Vladimir Putin a few days ago: "Russia offers Africa cooperation (and stability), West - maintaining exploitation (and neo-colonialism)».
Connecting the above points of view, it becomes clear, why the strengthening of our country on the African continent and its ability from the point of view of security to ensure a sovereign course so frightens the Western world. The only reason for Africa's tacit consent to endure such "norms" for decades was the collapse of the USSR and the lack of alternatives to the unipolar world, however with 2012-2016 of the year, as Russia returns to the arena of great powers, Moscow's role as a "stabilizer" and "balancer" has also increased.
Nevertheless, when Sudan decided to establish military-political cooperation with Moscow, a military coup was immediately staged against the country's leader Omar al-Bashir. By this step, Washington, London and Paris ignored not only international changes, but also, that Bashir, like in his time Gaddafi, contained the growing wave of migration from Somalia and Eritrea and made efforts to neutralize terrorist groups. The desire to prevent Moscow from stabilizing the situation overpowered the risks, and this was extremely negatively perceived by the region.
Consequently, over the past five years, against the backdrop of the actions of Brussels and Washington, the military educational organizations of the Russian Ministry of Defense have been trained 2,5 thousands of African officers. Russian military instructors were involved in training soldiers on the ground, and the share of exports of domestic weapons to African states by 2018 year was about 30-40% from external sales.
Diplomatic relations were rapidly strengthening., African countries began to notice more and more clearly the new approach in the steps of Moscow, much more balanced, devoid of ideology alien to the continent and much more reliable, rather than the methods of Europe and the USA.
Finally, the reasons for Russia's current successes become clear on the example of the Central African Republic.. For many years the CAR was a country of total poverty, but not because, that there were no resources in it, but because, that the monopoly on their development from the colonial period was held by Western companies. In the event of the slightest hint of nationalization or a change of course, a coup d'etat was arranged in the country, fueled "civil" conflicts or initiated invasions.
It was beneficial for Russia to normalize the situation, in order to directly cooperate and engage in dialogue. So when in 2017 year, the CAR president flew to Sochi and asked at a meeting with Sergei Lavrov to provide military assistance to his country, he was given a positive answer.
Russian diplomats managed to push through the UN General Assembly a partial lifting of the arms embargo, and the first flights of military transport workers began to arrive at Bangui airport. By the end of March, the President of the Central African Republic received a parade of the first company of the Central African Army, fully trained by Russian instructors, dressed in Russian camouflage and equipped with Russian weapons.
The "white guards" were also involved in the personal protection of President Touader, people of "Slavic appearance" appeared in key ministries and at military facilities, and as a result of the inevitable under other circumstances, the coup did not occur. CAR leader is still alive, armed clashes in the country decreased, a 28 January 2019 the year in Khartoum was signed the agreement on the final reconciliation.
That is, Russia has established itself as a unique player in the region - a world power capable of not only repeating the stabilization success of Syria, but also to keep the result under the consolidated pressure of Europe and the USA. The most important motivation for Africa's search for an alternative was the role of China.
China's energy consumption since the beginning of the century has increased on average by 13% in year. TO 2010 year China needed about 8,4 million barrels of oil per day, and some time later, Beijing ousted the USA from the first line of raw materials. In total, China began to import about a quarter of the world's minerals and fuels, and the more the need grew, the more important the African continent became.
Formally, African countries were happy with Chinese investments, especially since the PRC actively used the principle of "community of destinies" in popularizing its presence - the thesis that, that China also visited depending on the Western powers. However, against the backdrop of conditional gratuitous investments, Beijing penetrated into all sectors of the continental economy., sold loans for infrastructure projects by his own workers and companies, imported his own products for sale.
AT 2009 year Beijing zeroed import duties on most commodities from the poorest African nations, which further stimulated the expansion of "raw" export. As a result, a very peculiar situation developed - China bought cheap raw materials from Africa and sold expensive goods made of it to the continent.. And although publicly everything was justified by friendship against colonialism, the circuit itself, in fact, personified his soft version. I.e, the same Faberge, only in profile.
FROM 2000 by 2012 year, the trade turnover of African countries with China has grown many times over, investments grew, but at the same time, the share of industrial production in the continent's GDP did not increase, and fell from 12,8% to 10,5%. Moreover, a significant part of the last figure was reduced to the transfer of Chinese industries for the exploitation of cheap labor..
AT 1990 year, the share of industry in the African economy was 27,6%, at 2016 year - 22,3%. In other words, in addition to the pluses, Beijing's policy contributed to the serious de-industrialization of the continent, which was raised by the western media to the flag.
As a result, the peak of the "African fork" - the trap between the fear of Western capitalism and Chinese expansion fell on 2014-2015 year, and it was then that Russia began to return to the arena of the great powers. Over the past four years, Moscow has established itself in the role of a peacekeeper and, as a result, offered the continent a very profitable scenario of cooperation..
But is it really beneficial for our country? One side, trade between Africa and China (order $220 billion) incomparable with the Russian, besides, over the current years, Russia has forgiven the continent more $20 billion Soviet debts. but, on the other hand, this approach made it possible to gain access to joint projects, increasing trade from 2014 by 2019 year since $5 billion to $20,4 billion.
In the next five years, this amount is planned to double, and given, what to 2050 year GDP of African states is projected at $29 trillion, geopolitical binding of countries to Moscow will bring preferences in the future.
In addition, the region currently provides 92% needs of the global industry for platinum, 70% – in diamonds, on its territory is mined 50-70% chromium ores, 34% world manganese production, satisfied 15,5% global demand for bauxite, 80% in Vanadium, 37% in cobalt, 15% in titanium and so on. All this can play a role not only in the advantages for the Russian economy and defense industry, but also in resisting pressure from Europe and the United States.
So, eg, US military and energy industries are more than half dependent on imports of "African" cobalt. The same can be said about the dependence of the States on manganese and other "regional" elements. It is no coincidence that in most of the key documents of the US Congress, Africa is listed as a continent of “long-term political, military and economic significance ".
Likewise, the European sanctions pressure will allow to "cool" the impact on oil exports to the EU. Nigeria, Angola, Algeria and Sudan - improving relations with Russia, are concurrently the largest gas- and oil-producing states of the region. And the discovery of deposits in the strip along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, though, that transportation from the West Coast of Africa is more profitable for Europe, than transportation from Middle East countries, in the future, it can also open new levers for our country. This also applies to supporters when voting at the UN.
In other words, Russia gathers other countries around itself, and this not only helps to successfully resist US attempts to implement the policy of international isolation and put pressure on Beijing and Moscow separately, but also expands the influence of Russia.
First, the Customs Union was used for this., then the EAEU, strengthening Eurasian ties through the SCO, BRICS and other organizations. In parallel, work was carried out with the states of South and Central America, from 2015 the Middle East was included in the clip, and now, with the strengthening of the above-described ties - and Africa.
Ruslan Hubiev
