Vladimir Putin’s Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg is the second time he’s invited African leaders to meet him on his home turf, and if attendance is anything to go by, he is more interested in them than they are in him: At the last summit in Sochi, 45 of them turned up, this time almost two thirds of them stayed away. So what is Putin offering? The Russian president has promised to supply African nations free weapons to enhance security on the continent – his country is already Africa’s biggest arms dealer. He also pledged cooperation on trade, science and technology.
“Africa is suffering” – those were the words of AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat lamenting that the war between Russia and Ukraine was making Africa’s food crisis worse. Responding to African calls asking Kyiv and Moscow to end the conflict, Putin said he’d look at an African peace proposal. The Russian leader rejected as “hypocritical’ accusations by the West” that the Kremlin is playing “hunger games.” On Thursday, Putin announced free grain supplies to six African nations just ten days after blocking exports from Ukraine by quitting the Black Sea grain deal.

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