Loading ...Putin to send six African countries grain “free of charge”, refuses to rejoin Black Sea Grain Initiative
Speaking at the Russia-Africa summit held in St. Petersburg on 27 July, which is being attended by delegations from 49 different African countries, Putin stated that Russia had the ability to “fill in the gap left by the withdrawal of the Ukrainian grain from the global market, either by selling its grain or by transferring it for free to the neediest countries in Africa.”
“To be more specific, let me say that in the next few months, next three to four months, we will be ready to provide, free of charge, a supply of 25,000-50,000 tonnes of grain each to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea, delivered at no cost,” Putin stated, at the plenary session of the Forum.
Russia is also looking to use debt relief as a means of currying favour in Africa. At the summit, officials from Somalia revealed that Moscow had agreed to grant debt relief on over $684mn owed by Mogadishu, bringing the total amount of forgiveness granted by Russia to the African continent to $20bn since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Very generous and I imagine this news is most welcome in the countries affected. Africa is under a lot of stress at the moment because of recent severe food inflation and its been destabilizing in more than a few countries including where I live. There is little understanding of the geopolitical or market forces behind the price rises. Instead, people just blame their governments directly as thought they are the cause of the problem. Of course they are not the cause. This kind of inflation is totally outside their control. But you can’t explain that to an angry mob who don’t give a shit about excuses!