Russia's long history of aid and co-operation with Africa is in stark contrast to centuries of Western imperialism, two pundits say.
The Russia-Africa summit got underway on Thursday in St. Petersburg, with Russian President Vladimir Putin hosting dozens of African leaders and hundreds of other delegates.
Gerald Horne told Sputnik that "we may be in the midst of the evolution of a new world order" — unlike the US' declaration of its unipolar supremacy in 1991.
The new order is "the polar opposite of what transpired centuries ago, when a few nations and Western Europe were able to catapult themselves into global leadership, not least because of exploitation of Africa, not least because of the unlamented African slave trade," Horne stressed.
Now St. Petersburg hosts the spectacle of sovereign African nations meeting the Russian leadership, with the BRICS group of emerging economies on the sidelines.
"This all points to this new international situation, which is one of the reasons why Washington and its allies lobbied Africa so furiously not to attend this meeting," Horne said. But the "two giants of the continent," Egypt in the north and South Africa in the south, were present along with others.
In the years leading up the the conference, "these Western European nations were getting back on exploitation and plunder of Africa," the academic noted.
He recalled Russia's long-standing support for Africans resisting European imperialism — not only during the Cold War but around the turn of the 20th century, when Russia aided Africa's last remaining uncolonized nation, Ethiopia.
Now, following the collapse of the Ukraine grain export deal after repeated abuses by the West, Moscow is donating tens of thousands of tonnes of grain to the neediest African countries.
"Russia is rushing to the defense of African nations in terms of food sovereignty at a time when the proxy war in Ukraine has helped to stymie that remarkable and important goal," Horne said.
Journalist Jon Jeter told Sputnik that the US and the other neocolonial powers "realize that they have a fight on their hands, particularly these last days of empire."
"I don't think Russia is the savior of Africa, but Russia has certainly showed that it's willing and it's always been willing, dating back to the days of the Soviet Union, to strike a much better deal with the Africans than the West," Jeter said.
The West "will buy raw materials, and they won't necessarily help Africans industrialize, which is what Africa really needs."
Russia, by contrast, will "buy things at a fairer price than will the United States, which will resort to stealing stuff at gunpoint as we've seen with this coup in Niger, and the other actions in the Sahel region in particular."
The correspondent said Russia was "waiting in the wings" of a declining Western imperialism.
"They understand that they have an antagonist in the United States, that if they don't build this relationship, the United States is going to try to isolate Russia," Jeter said. "Of course, that's backfired."
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