NewsRescue
According to the head of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, the West’s efforts to persuade Africa to turn against Russia have failed since people on the continent recognise that the unipolar world order is coming to an end.
Oleg Ozerov, Russia’s ambassador-at-large, told Newsweek on Friday that the attendance of 40 out of 54 countries at the Russia-Africa Interparliamentary Conference had “shattered the myth of Russia’s alleged isolation due to events in Ukraine, which has been persistently promoted in the West.”
“People in Africa understand very well that the former Soviet republic has turned into an arena of confrontation between new and old world paradigms, between different visions of the future, not just a trivial feud between neighbours,” he said.
According to the diplomat, Africa, China, India, and Latin American countries’ “balanced and neutral approach” to “Russia’s confrontation with the West” “confirms once again that the transition to… multipolar architecture is irreversible.”” These countries obviously understand that the time for a “unipolar world-order is running out,” he continued.
What Africa requires now is the promotion of local solutions and national interests, as well as liberation “from the rigid constraints of globalism promoted by neo-liberalist ideologists,” according to Ozerov. “African countries rely on Russia’s support” to achieve those objectives, he said.
Moscow is supporting attempts to complete the decolonization process in a number of African countries, while simultaneously assembling a broad anti-terrorist front on the continent “free of any hidden agenda or double standards,” according to the diplomat.
“The United States and the European Union want Africa to be a mere supplier of raw materials to the ‘civilised world,'” Ozerov explained. However, Russia takes a different approach, stating that its “primary interest is to assist the development of Africa’s domestic energy and electricity markets, where we have considerable expertise, particularly in nuclear energy.”
According to the ambassador, Moscow has “no vested interests, such as preserving its zone of influence or aggressively guarding markets from any ‘outsiders,'” and Africans recognise this. That is why “the unprecedented pressure by the West on Russia’s African partners is not that effective in practise.”
During his visits to Africa, Ozerov stated that “the aggressive imposition of Western ‘new values’ causes growing rejection there and only brings Russia and African countries closer together.”
