Sub-Saharan Africa
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Russia Ready to Help Ease South African Energy Crisis, Consul General Says

South Africa is currently facing rolling blackouts due to a harsh energy crisis that started in 2007. With the situation becoming more dire in recent months and to help tackle the crisis, the country's authorities declared a national state of disaster from February-April this year.
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Russia is willing to help South Africa in the energy sphere, Russia's Consul General in Cape Town Aleksei Malenko said in an interview with local media.

"[The] Russian side is always ready to help our South African partners in this crisis [...]. As for nuclear energy, Russia is one of the world leaders in this industry and has already finished and continues to implement a number of projects in foreign countries," stated the diplomat.

He outlined that Russia has broad experience in collaboration with many nations on the continent on the sphere of peaceful nuclear energy.

"Rosatom State Corporation has vast positive experience of cooperation with sub-Sahara African countries in the field of peaceful nuclear development," stated the official. "Agreements in this sphere have been signed with Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ethiopia and other partners. One of the flagship projects is the Center for Nuclear Science and Technology in Zambia."

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The diplomat has also outlined the benefits of the peaceful nuclear energy for the development of any country, such as minimizing dependence on weather conditions, other sources of energy, as well as creating jobs.

"The presence of its own nuclear power industry makes it possible to minimize dependence on the weather, resource prices and other unpredictable factors," he said. "In addition, the construction of a nuclear power plant provides a good opportunity to create new jobs, attracts new technologies and investments, ensures a stable source of energy and, as a result, economic stability of any country concerned."

The diplomat once again stressed that Russia is always open for cooperation, with the key point being "partners' willingness to develop all energy sources in a balanced way."
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Malenko said that he is confident of South Africa's positive stance on cooperatin with Russia and touched upon the pressure the African nation has experienced from Western countries following the International Criminal Court's (ICC) warrant for President Vladimir Putin's arrest.

"We are confident that the positive stance of South Africa to strengthen cooperation with Russia both on bilateral bases and within the BRICS format gives a solid ground to believe that our South African partners will proceed from national interests and took a wise decision based regardless of the unconditional and politically tinged demarches of one or another organization that claims to be universal, but de facto it isn’t."

Earlier this year, the Hague-based International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin on the grounds of alleged "unlawful deportation" of Ukrainian children to Russia. The Kremlin hit back by stating that as Russia is not a party to the ICC, the court's decision is legally null and void. South Africa has since decided to leave the body also.