The great apotheosis of Russian diplomacy that was expected to be the Russia-Africa summitongoing in St. Petersburg, has not gone as he would have liked Vladimir Putin.
Besides of call failureonly 17 African leaders have attended compared to the 43 who attended the summit in 2019, the Russian president is encountering reproaches from those who supposedly came to the Russian city to flatter him.
There has been adulation, evidently. The most striking, the T-shirt with Putin’s face with which a diplomat from the Guinean delegation attended, or the praise of the Central African president who thanked Putin for his help in avoiding a civil war in his country.
However, the new Russian blockade on the Ukrainian grain export It has been seen as Russia’s betrayal of Africa, which is why many heads of state have chosen not to attend the meeting.
Others have, but have publicly confronted the Russian president over his move, which could unleash an unprecedented food crisis in the African continent.
This is the case of the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisiwhich demanded that Putin renew the agreement that facilitates the export of Ukrainian cereals through the Black Sea and avoid a famine in Africa.
“It is clear that one must reach a consensus on the grain deal and take into account the needs of the countries that consume it, as well as the consequences that this crisis will have for many nations,” he said.
Egypt, one of the African countries most dependent on Ukrainian and Russian grain, could face a severe food crisis if the prices of cereals shoot up in the international market.
Putin has tried to remove all responsibility faced a future famine and offered free grain to African countries.
In addition, he blamed Western countries for the increase in the price of cerealsand not the invasion of Ukraine for which it is responsible.
In this sense, reported the BBC, offered between 25,000 and 50,000 tons of free grain in the next four months to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somania, Eritrea and the Central African Republic.
