Russia and Africa should exchange information about the situation in their countries through direct dialogue, not through Western sources, said Valence Maniragena, senior lecturer at the African Studies Department of the Oriental Faculty of St Petersburg State University (SPbU), during the Valdai Discussion Club's Russian-African conference.
"In Russia, the information about Africa is mainly data received from Western media, probably Africa also receives information about Russia from the same Western sources," he said, adding: "To cooperate, we need to know each other well."
The expert explained that information about African states in Russia and about Russia on the continent usually comes from Western media outlets and thus is not free from the West's perspective on certain issues.
As African nations and Russia are set to strengthen cooperation in various fields of mutual interest, they should learn more about each other, he said, stressing that this requires direct dialogue between the countries in the sphere of media.
In the times of the USSR, he pointed out, there were many Soviet media outlets in a number of African countries, in particular, TASS. However, as of now, African countries don't have enough correspondents in Russia.
"This is a big loss for our cooperation," Maniragena admitted, elaborating: "Nevertheless, I hope that since we meet, the leaders of African countries and Russia meet, we will come to a point where the cooperation of individual states with Russia and, in general, Russia with the [African] continent will be fruitful and mutually enriching."
Maniragena also pointed to the prospects for the implementation of joint infrastructure projects between Russia and African countries. He specified that Russia could take part in the construction of railways on the continent, so that the Central African states would have a better connection with ocean coasts.
The Russian-African conference brought together experts from Russia, Algeria, Benin, Ghana, Egypt and a dozen other countries. Russia's Ambassador-at-Large and, head of the secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, Oleg Ozerov, said that at the moment the system of international relations is undergoing major changes, with Africa strengthening its role on the global arena.