{"id":30823,"date":"2020-12-02T22:38:39","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T20:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/zimbabwe\/?p=30823"},"modified":"2020-12-02T22:38:39","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T20:38:39","slug":"red-lights-are-flashing-over-russian-dealings-with-mozambique-zimbabwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/red-lights-are-flashing-over-russian-dealings-with-mozambique-zimbabwe","title":{"rendered":"Red lights Are Flashing Over Russian Dealings With Mozambique, Zimbabwe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Zimbabwe<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>By Dzvinka Kachur<\/b> – Russia is clearly keen to boost its presence in Africa. \u201cAfrica is one of the priorities of Russian foreign policy,\u201d declared Russian deputy foreign affairs minister Mikhail Bogdanov in a meeting of the Russia-Africa Public Forum on November 5.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s successful Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, and September\u2019s presentation of the new Secretariat for Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, set the stage for Moscow\u2019s rollout of new economic, political and scientific co-operation with the continent. However, while this co-operation will clearly be to Russia\u2019s benefit, from the African side things are a bit more murky.<\/p>\n

I recently focused on Russia\u2019s growing relationship with two African countries \u2014 Mozambique and Zimbabwe \u2014 in a special report for the SA Institute of International Affairs. The report, \u201cRussia\u2019s Resurgence in Africa: Zimbabwe and Mozambique\u201d, shows that despite the Soviet Union\u2019s long involvement in Zimbabwe and Mozambique\u2019s anticolonial movements, Russia has so far been unable to convert political connections into robust economic co-operation.<\/p>\n

Russia is not among the top five major export or import partners for Zimbabwe or Mozambique. One reason is that Russia\u2019s renewed interest in Africa is relatively recent. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia\u2019s focus was on internal issues and on getting access to the larger markets of the EU and US. This changed after Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014 triggered Western sanctions against individuals and major sectors of the highly centralised economy. The restrictions on trading with Western countries, the targeting of prominent allies of President Vladimir Putin, and the drop in oil prices drove Russia to look for alternatives in Africa.<\/p>\n

Western sanctions were also at play on the Zimbabwean side. A major Russia-Zimbabwe project, which led to the establishment of Great Dyke Investments, involves the trade of platinum rights for MiG-35 fighter jets. Another deal, a diamond-mining project that involves the Russian state-owned firm Alrosa, caused diamonds to be bartered for much-needed fuel in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

In both cases it declared highly problematic elections characterised by violence and manipulation to be free and fair<\/p>\n

This link between natural resources and restricted trade is a crucial one in Russia-Africa relations. Almost half of Russian arms exports go to Africa, and most of the high-level agreements on business development between Zimbabwe or Mozambique and Russia are premised on state access to mineral assets such as platinum, or gold in the case of Zimbabwe and gas for Mozambique. In return, Russia offers, among others, military equipment and political support.<\/p>\n

Russia is also open to supporting the leaders of the African states in their desire to remain in power through manipulating vulnerable elections. Presidents Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique and Zimbabwe\u2019s Emmerson Mnangagwa visited Russia about the time of their re-elections. The Association for Free Research and International Cooperation (Afric), an organisation that poses as a neutral election monitoring outfit but that has connections to the Russian government, has been involved in Zimbabwean and Mozambican elections. In both cases it declared highly problematic elections characterised by violence and manipulation to be free and fair.<\/p>\n

In Mozambique it was also discovered that a large network of web pages promoting Nyusi\u2019s Frelimo party and blackmailing the opposition was run by the St Petersburg-based International Research Agency. This organisation is led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close Putin ally, who has also been accused of interfering in the US elections in 2016. This shadowy co-operation extends to the current Islamic insurgency crisis in Mozambique\u2019s Cabo Delgado province. Russian mercenaries linked to Prigozhin were reportedly active in the region until at least March.<\/p>\n

My research into the cases of Mozambique and Zimbabwe revealed the following trends:<\/p>\n

As the continent makes decisions about future political partnerships, these realities need more consideration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. By Dzvinka Kachur – Russia is clearly keen to boost its presence in Africa. \u201cAfrica is one of the priorities of Russian foreign policy,\u201d declared Russian deputy foreign affairs minister Mikhail Bogdanov in a meeting of the Russia-Africa Public Forum on November 5. Last year\u2019s successful Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, and September\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":30822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,35,15],"tags":[1493,19],"class_list":["post-30823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"\nRed lights Are Flashing Over Russian Dealings With Mozambique, Zimbabwe - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/red-lights-are-flashing-over-russian-dealings-with-mozambique-zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Red lights Are Flashing Over Russian Dealings With Mozambique, Zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. By Dzvinka Kachur – Russia is clearly keen to boost its presence in Africa. \u201cAfrica is one of the priorities of Russian foreign policy,\u201d declared Russian deputy foreign affairs minister Mikhail Bogdanov in a meeting of the Russia-Africa Public Forum on November 5. 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