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No Signs Africa Will Join Anti-Moscow Sanctions Seen, Russian Diplomat Says

15:40, 13 July 2023

Gleb Chugunov

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Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the policy of containing and weakening Russia is a long-term strategy of the West, and sanctions have dealt a serious blow to the entire global economy. According to him, the main goal of the West is to worsen the lives of millions of people.

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Moscow sees no signs that African nations can join the West's anti-Russian sanctions, Oleg Ozerov, Ambassador-at-large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, head of the secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, told Sputnik.

"At the moment, no African country has joined the sanctions against Russia. We don't see any signs yet that it will join," he said.

Ozerov stated that, on the contrary, the African countries demonstrate a "readiness, desire and political will not only to continue cooperation with Russia, but also to expand it."

According to the ambassador, the Russian presence in Africa does not pose a threat to anyone; Moscow's relations with the countries of the continent are not directed against them.

"Russia does not pose any threat to anyone. All our cooperation with Africa is not directed against these countries," Ozerov stated.

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He outlined that Russia, while developing cooperation with Africa, does not require the abandonment of relations with other countries, as the West does.

"We are building it [the cooperation with Africa] based on the principles of sovereign equality and national interests, the desire of both sides to develop this cooperation on pressing issues that these countries must solve," the diplomat noted.

Earlier this week, Ozerov emphasized that Russia and African nations are collaborating at a qualitatively new level.

He also stressed that the second Russia–Africa Summit, scheduled for July 27-28, is taking place at a crucial juncture in the evolution of the entire system of international relations.

"It is clear that our cooperation with the African continent is reaching a qualitatively new level... Some might say that this is a fundamentally new quality of cooperation, because now we are not talking about Russia helping to establish the independence and statehood of African states [as in the days of the Soviet union] ... We are talking about the development of equal and mutually beneficial relations between Russia and African countries," Ozerov said.

He made the remarks during a round table on Russia-Africa: Media Cooperation and Media Sovereignty, hosted by Rossiya Segodnya media center.