The host was the Russian ambassador, Ilya Rogachev, and his guests were the South African Minister of Defense as well as the head of the country’s armed forces. He saw no reason to avoid the rally, as many officials from other nations did, nor did he apologize. Participation was “an integral part of fulfilling international defense affairs,” a government spokesman said. Vladimir Putin with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2019. The ruling ANC party in South Africa has refused to criticize Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Photo: Sergei Chirikov / AP The support of many African leaders and governments for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine – or at least the reluctance to condemn it – has disappointed Western officials. In the UN General Assembly resolution, 17 African nations abstained – almost half abstaining – and one voted against condemning Russia for its “aggression” and demanding secession from Ukraine, although a majority of African countries supported it. The resolution was adopted by 141 votes in favor. Some observers have raised the possibility of a new strategy of division across Africa, similar to that during the Cold War. “It precedes the days of the Cold War and the divisions we saw then. “But the objective reality of the international system is so different now that it raises many questions about the commitment of certain African countries to the post-Cold War order and its values,” said Priyal Singh, a researcher at the Institute for Strategic Studies in Pretoria. From the ambassador’s party, the ruling African National Congress party in South Africa has redoubled its refusal to criticize Russia, saying it hopes to remain neutral and encourage dialogue. Others on the continent have followed suit, calling for peace but blaming NATO for extending eastward to war, protesting Western “double standards” and resisting any call for criticism of Russia. It is no coincidence that the new divide is similar to the one that tore Africa apart decades ago. Many countries across the continent are still ruled by parties backed by Moscow during their struggles for liberation from colonial or white domination, analysts say. Although few of their young people experienced the bitter battles of the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s, the leaders of the ruling parties in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Angola, and Mozambique remember how Soviet weapons, cash, and counselors helped us gain freedom. Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa has described both Russia and China as “credible pillars for many years” who “helped us in our struggle for independence, but also… to defend our sovereignty against the constant attack by them.” our critics “, a reference to Western sanctions in Zimbabwe imposed following human rights violations under Robert Mugabe. Vladimir Putin and Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the Russia-Africa Summit 2019. Photo: Sergei Chirikov / AP Mozambique also abstained from the UN, saying it hoped it would encourage dialogue to resolve the violence. So did Algeria, once considered a “revolutionary” state near Moscow. In recent years, Russia has moved to exploit such historical ties, underscoring them in public statements, major conferences and repeated trips to Africa by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Moscow has also pushed its agenda through covert social media portraying Moscow on the African side against Western “imperialists.” Such efforts have focused on volatile parts of Africa, which Moscow sees as fertile ground for intervention, and have reaped significant benefits in places such as the Central African Republic and Mali, where the resentment of the former French colonial power was already deep. “There is a strong anti-Western sentiment in the Sahel, an anti-imperialist trend in public opinion and anti-imperialist means against the US and the West,” said Pauline Bax, deputy director of the Africa Program at the International Crisis Group. Mali recently renewed ties with Moscow after the military occupation there, and the country’s new leaders have called in Kremlin-linked paramilitary mercenaries to fight Islamist insurgents as French and other Western troops withdraw. The Wagner Group is run by a businessman who is a close ally of President Putin and is now believed to be present in at least six African countries, including CAR and Sudan, both of which were absent from the UN. Boris Johnson announced sanctions against Wagner on Thursday. Sudan has also moved closer to Moscow in recent months. The country, where a military coup last year derailed a fragile transition to democratic power, has struck a major deal by offering Russia a port on Africa’s east coast for 25 years. Eritrea – the only nation on the continent that voted against the UN proposal – is a brutally repressive authoritarian state that Moscow has also condemned. Other Russian ties across the continent are being strengthened through investment in mining, financial lending and the sale of agricultural equipment or nuclear technology. Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned military and civilian nuclear power company, has sought to expand into Africa in recent years. Russia was the largest arms exporter to sub-Saharan Africa in 2016–20, supplying almost a third of total arms imports to sub-Saharan Africa, up from a quarter in 2011–15, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Western officials have been particularly disappointed by Uganda, which has received huge amounts of Western aid. A once-close relationship with the United States and the United Kingdom has deteriorated due to the crushing of political dissent and pressure from the West to recognize LGBT rights. Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, has accused the West of meddling in its internal affairs. Protesters outside the Uganda High Commission in London call on the president not to sign an anti-LGBT bill in 2015. Photo: Dinendra Haria / Alamy The son of Museveni’s influential and ambitious successor, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, said on Twitter that “the majority of humanity (which is non-white) supports Russia’s stance on Ukraine.” Uganda’s spokesman says Uganda abstained from voting on a UN resolution calling for the next president of the Non-Aligned Movement, a group of 120 Cold War-era member states that includes almost every African nation. However, Museveni has made little effort to hide his sympathies, criticizing “Western aggression against Africa” ​​and describing Russia as the “center of gravity” for the Balkans, like China in Southeast Asia. Nicholas Sengoba, a columnist for the Uganda Daily Monitor, said many authoritarian African leaders, such as Museveni, were pleased to see Putin “standing up to the big boys in the West.” Analysts say more recent examples of what is considered Western “neo-imperialism” are also influencing the reaction of many in Africa to the conflict. “The crisis in Libya in 2011 and the NATO intervention there, the instability in the Sahel and other experiences mean that many countries agree to the sovereignty of Western domination and believe that we need a global response. Russia is seen as the representative of the former Soviet Union in this respect, “Singh said. Reports that some African students have been discriminated against by security officials and others in Ukraine as they try to escape the social media-escalated conflict have also sparked outrage in Nigeria and elsewhere. However, it is not clear how far the positions often taken by older leaders reflect broader emotions, especially among younger populations. The war in Ukraine has revealed political, social and other differences within and between countries. In South Africa, the populist left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters praised Moscow’s action to “prevent… a patent and a clear security threat to Russian territory and people from NATO forces, especially the US”, while the center-right Democratic Party the colors of the Ukrainian flag at the provincial parliament in Cape Town, a city he governs, and said he took part in “the global condemnation of Russia’s attack on Ukrainian civilians, mainly women and children.” A motorcyclist passes by the town hall of Cape Town, illuminated in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, on March 2. Photo: Shelley Christians / Reuters The anti-Western and anti-Eastern stance of some on the continent threatens to overshadow the African Union’s early stance on the invasion of Ukraine and the speech of Kenya’s ambassador to the UN, Martin Kimani, who argued that as the Africans had suffered violence for centuries, should not forgive efforts to change or enforce borders by force. “It’s important to note that the majority of African nations voted in favor [of the UN resolution] and that regional and continental actors such as the African Union or ECOWAS [a West Africa grouping] “They rushed to condemn Moscow.” A recent study found that the 27 African countries that voted in favor of the UN resolution were mostly democracies and all Western allies, who often took an active part in joint military operations. Most of those who abstained or, like Eritrea, voted against the resolution, were authoritarian or hybrid regimes.