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ARMS, POWER AND DIAMONDS PT. 1:
THE RUSSIAN AFRICAN RELATION AND ITS COMMERCIAL AND POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS IN THE NORTH OF AFRICA
Analysis by Luis Santaella
Russia is a powerful and rich country. It really doesn’t matter if the Russian government would choose to isolate their country from the world, the mere size of its economy, territory and military power would still make them one of the most important actors in the international chessboard. There are currently a wide variety of interesting topics in the international trade conversation. However, attention has been drawn to a continent which has been underrated and overlooked almost for the entire history of mankind: Africa; and Russia, although a little late, has already set its goals on this territory and we will analyze the implications of that. This is the first of the two articles, in the current one we will focus on the North-African Region and the Sahara’s countries.
Arms, power, and diamonds. Pt. 1
The Russian African relations and its commercial and political impl: Publications
Arms, power, and diamonds. Pt. 1
The Russian African relations and its commercial and political impl: Image
In 2019 there was the biggest summit between African heads of states and a single country: the Sochi Russia-Africa summit. More than 40 heads of state, with their correspondent diplomatic teams, gathered in the South of Russia to establish an understanding with the powerful giant and the new zone of interest. During the summit, President Vladimir Putin called for a stronger and closer relation, effective dialogue channels and several collaborative actions. And although international cooperation and trade in the region has always been seen as positive, we must ask why.
Africa has become a mainstream topic among international studies due to a variety of reasons; its position, its resources, its cheap labor, and some authors even claiming that the next big conflict will be for the control of the African region. China has been making huge investments in the past years for immense infrastructure projects and the NATO countries have increased their diplomatic and military presence in most of the region; Saudi Arabia, Israel and India are also present with multiple agreements, and even with a huge instability and the significant presence of terrorist groups, Africa is becoming a very attractive region for the international leaders in every sense.
Russia has entered the race a little late - it was not until 2018 when the U.S started considering the Russian presence in the region as an alarming fact. However, in the recent years this presence has become very recurrent in foreign policy analyses and we will explain the main factors to consider.
Arms, power, and diamonds. Pt. 1
The Russian African relations and its commercial and political impl: Text
Arms, power, and diamonds. Pt. 1
The Russian African relations and its commercial and political impl: Image
As of the moment of writing (January 2022), Russia has already signed and executed more than a dozen of new deals with African countries since 2014, most of them related to military trade, energy, media and culture, the management of valuable resources such as uranium, diamonds and platinum, and cooperation relating trade and military transit. Since talking about each of these deals would take an entire college course, we will focus on the main categories to understand why Africa is becoming one of Russia’s priorities. I created a map to point out important deals for each country, however we must clarify that this is a simplification with explanatory purposes and there are a lot of other factors to consider.
Arms and Security
Russia’s arms industry is heavily important, and Africa represents almost 20% of its market. Algeria being their biggest partner, Russia has positioned itself as a big arm supplier, but also a military educator. In countries like Sudan, Algeria, and Mali, Russia is not only selling weapons, but also providing military training and support to combat terrorist cells and, in some cases, helping with the control of antigoverment movements, as in Libya and Sudan. Especially north-African countries, with historical political instability, have been supported by Russian security deals according to which they help the correspondent government to maintain control. Russian military presence has been seen in most of the Sahara region - and even though this is not a stable presence with formal settlements - this has been perceived as Russia making a strong statement and providing insurance to its African allies. With French, American, and Chinese military presence in the region, Russia’s forces stand out as the big bear joining the party. Also, its efforts in combating criminal and errant groups are an investment for Russian trade ensuring that ships can travel safely through the Red and Mediterranean seas. Also, it’s important to see how these arms deals in fact represent better business for Russia, since the agreements are free of economic sanctions or trade blockades, and while Africa provides cheaper resources for arms fabrication, Russia also offers better prices to its clients.
Media, Education, and Culture
Russia Today, Sputnik and other entertainment and content providers have a wide and important presence among the North-African countries, being accused of fabricating anti-west propaganda in favor of the local and Russian governments. This has shown to be effective, since several claims of Russian involvement in local politics have been seen favorably by the locals, as we could see in 2020, where people were waving Russian flags during Libya’s political protests. The involvement in local elections, though, has only been about accusations so far. And even beyond, Russia has provided education and opportunities to students, and the number of school projects as well as scholarships for student exchanges in Russia has increased significantly since 2019, the first summit. Also, the vaccination campaign in Africa was initiated by Russia and China months before the West sent their first batch, which was portrayed as an act of friendship rather than petty cynicism, contrary to the image the west had when they finally sent vaccines.
Energy and ore
The most important energy-related Russian parastatals have a strong presence in the Sahara region, with the construction of nuclear plants, the exploitation of oil and gas fields and the creation of safe routes for the transportation of these resources. The mining industry is also strongly present but mostly in the south - the topic of our next article. Even though Russia has oil and gas, to extract the resources is extremely expensive in comparison to doing it in the Saharan desert, and, with the expansion of the desert to the south, the Russian and local governments are not in the need of displacing local communities, since the lack of water and food is doing it for them.
The big Picture
The construction of the first nuclear plant in Egypt is probably an excellent example of Russian business in North-Africa. The Russian government provides the capital for the project and most of the necessary resources, with the condition of selling all the supplies to Russian enterprises, and introducing military surveillance to protect its investments. Although this might be seen as a long-term investment, the reality is that nowadays Russia has a strong gambling power with Egypt - the country controlling the gates to the Mediterranean sea - and with the recent involvement of Crimea into the Russian trade routes, now Russia has an open road thanks to an investment that Egypt needed and will pay back for in the future. The same goes with Sudan, Eritrea, and Somaliland: energy, security and arms deals provide Russia the necessary presence and political power to establish safe ports and routes for its trade convoys, while also entering a party in which China and Europe have already been gaining influence for some years already.
What about sanctions? Russia and some of the North-African countries are constantly being sanctioned by the UN and the West, however, most of the agreements made are immune to these blockades, which has made the relations even more attractive for both parties - and now it makes sense that the full involvement of Russia into African relations started after the sanctions related to the Crimean crisis in 2014. It is also worth pointing out that this friendship is noticeable in UN resolutions, specially in the Security council, where the African delegations have been stable allies of Russian.
What is Next?
We will point out the main factors to look after in the second article, where we will analyze Russia’s relations with the South and the evolution of the BRICS alliance. However, we must pay special attention to their involvement with the North, since most of the deals and agreements have taken place with these nations.
Bibliography
Çalişkan, G (2021). Russia’s Sub-Saharan Africa Policy. Ankara Center for Crisis and Policy Studies. https://www.ankasam.org/russias-sub-saharan-africa/?lang=en
Clifford, C. (2021). The Bear is back: Russian re-engagement with Africa is picking up with Putin in the driving seat. Africa Portal. https://www.africaportal.org/features/bear-back-russian-re-engagement-africa-picking-putin-driving-seat/
Clifford, C et. al. (2019). Foreign Policy: Russia’s strategic engagement in Africa. SAIIA. https://saiia.org.za/project/russias-strategic-engagement-in-africa/
Siegle, J. (2021). Russia and Africa: Expanding Influence and Instability. George Marshall European Center For Security Studies. https://africacenter.org/experts/joseph-siegle/russia-strategic-goals-africa/
Stronski, P. (2019). Late to the Party: Russia’s Return to Africa. Carnegie. https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/10/16/late-to-party-russia-s-return-to-africa-pub-80056
Russian President Vladimir Putin with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at the inaugural Russia-Africa summit in the Black Sea city of Sochi. Photo by: Tass News Agency
Arms, power, and diamonds. Pt. 1
The Russian African relations and its commercial and political impl: Text
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