Page 37 - bne Magazine August 2022

bne August 2022 Cover story I 37
Russian veteran foreign minister knows very well, and Moscow is in the mood to haggle as it works to shore up non- aligned support to defy sanctions.
And Uganda is definitely interested
in the goods Lavrov was purveying: Museveni said that Uganda is seeking Russia’s help in building a nuclear reactor. As bne IntelliNews has reported, Russian nuclear power exports are booming and earning the country hundreds of billions of dollars.
Museveni said that people with “limited understanding” want African countries to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine but argued that Moscow had “stood with Africa for the last 100 years” as part of the continent’s anti-colonial movements.
(Hours after Lavrov departed from Uganda, Washington announced that the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, will be in Kampala next week for a two-nation visit to the continent, with Ghana being her other destination.)
Meanwhile, Egypt has broken ground on the construction of another nuclear power station at El-Dabaa, 300 km
Africa has only one commercial nuclear power station, South Africa's Koeberg plant near Cape Town, but several other countries have plans in the works. Nigeria – Africa's largest country by population and biggest in terms of GDP – opened the bidding in March for a 4,000-MW nuclear power plant (NPP), and Ghana
plans to choose a site for a new nuclear facility by year-end. Rosatom has already signed co-operation agreements with both countries, as well as Ethiopia and Zambia, which also have nuclear ambitions.
Russia had successfully reactivated old Soviet-era ties from a time when Moscow was viewed as
more sympathetic than many Western capitals to the cause of liberation struggles in Africa.
Lavrov ended his tour in Addis Ababa, where he spent time with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Ethiopia has emerged as a particularly close Russian ally in Africa and was due to host the second Russia- Africa summit this November, which has now been postponed until next year.
Ethiopia is also seeking to balance different power blocs, experts say.
Arms supplies
In addition to commerce, Russia
has used its military to support
several struggles in Africa, including sending the military forces of the nominally privately owned Wagner group to the Sahel and mining
groups to the likes of Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR).
With multiple wars running in Africa, Russian arms sales are a key plank for relations. However, the war in Ukraine is expected to reduce Moscow’s ability to supply arms as it rapidly burns through its own stocks. Russia accounts for a fifth of the world’s arms trade
and generates about $15bn a year
from sales. It competes with the other major arms producers of the US, France and Germany, and has a 20% market share, second only to the US ($37bn).
Russia’s arms sales to Africa have increased by a quarter over the last four years. In fact, Russia accounts for nearly half of major arms exports to Africa, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, with Algeria, Egypt, Sudan and Angola as the biggest customers (all of which, except Egypt, abstained in the UN vote to condemn Russia). And all across Africa, Russia has military trainers on the ground who are supporting the sales of the popular Mi-17 and Mi-35 helicopters and other equipment, according to US intelligence reports.
Food crisis
But Lavrov’s main message during
his tour was to combat the idea that Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine had led to higher food and fertiliser prices. Russia has been emphasising that it has done nothing to stop Ukraine from exporting grain, insisting that it has been Ukraine’s decision to mine the sea off its coast
that has prevented shipments.
In this context, the timing of the Istanbul grain deal on July 22, just
days before Lavrov left for Africa, is significant, as much of the grain that is about to leave Ukraine is destined for customers in Africa. Putin’s decision to loosen the noose around Ukraine’s grain exports is partly motivated by pressure on Russia to supply its friends in Africa.
“Museveni said people with “limited understanding” want African countries to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine but Moscow had “stood with Africa for the last 100 years” as part of the continent’s anti-colonial movements”
northwest of Cairo, that will come online in 2030. Egypt and Russia signed a deal to build the facility
in 2015, and Moscow is reportedly lending Cairo $25bn for the project, covering 85% of the cost, which Rosatom director-general Alexey Likhachev called the "largest project of the Russian-Egyptian cooperation since the Aswan High Dam".
Russia’s war with Ukraine has provided Ethiopia with an opportunity to play Russia off against the US, which imposed sanctions on the country last year in response to a war in Tigray,
and Lavrov’s visit provoked a follow- up meeting by Mike Hammer, US special envoy to the Horn of Africa, slated for a week after Lavrov leaves.
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