powerful tool to control the public. let us indeed an event is virtually nonexistent to day. if it doesn't show up on line, it was not like that before. as you know, previously information was secondary to reality. and now it's all vice versa. as much, that's why the importance of information grows infinitely. so if we want a strong partnership with africa, we need to take 2 factors into account a lawyer in 1st, we africa gets younger. most of its information, including on russia, from western sources, were lagging behind in that department. i know that r t and many other russian media are getting active in africa. it's still, it's not enough of the 2nd. we need to be able to offer true information about the reality of africa in russia. so many russians still have an image of africa as described in carnita. sykowski is poems, while old and full of exotic threats, conflicts, wars, and poverty. don't get me wrong. these problems do exist on the continent,

but not on the scale. the russian media wants us to believe despoiling that are voted sophocles. what can you say about the africa, stereotypes of the russian elite, super ideal of them still you see when they get their information from the same sources as everybody else, mostly from the russian media. if you let me give you an example, just recently. russia's o t r t channel covered the visit of russia's foreign ministers, her gay lover of to s what tell me in the broadcast as what genius king was shown, wearing a traditional outfit, the commentators mainly focused on whether he had any underwear beneath the garment . how many wives he had, it turned out he had 16, and if he was going to bring them all to the summit of the broadcast, presented a picture of modern russia suffering. an international isolation imposed by 1000000000 out of the planets entire population of 8000000 by the way. and only able to cooperate with countries rolled by naked kings with nothing else to offer

but 16 wives exchanged for cows. that's the kind of stories people see, including those who make decisions of the ruling elites the rule. what did they learn from it? will the ministry of finance allow investing in africa with its naked kings and cows in the streets? it won't my city and for some reason our media forget to tell us that the world's 1st heart surgery was carried out in south africa was, or that the world's 1st online paper money. or that africa annually holds fintech forums and is a global leader and financial technology and decentralized finance or that a 3rd of all resources that the world's green economies and defense industries require are located in africa where the 60 percent of the continents people are younger than $25.00, meaning they are the future of the world. nobody knows this. instead, everybody talks about conflicts, wars, naked kings,

et cetera. and if that is the image of africa, we want to create for our public than our paul see towards the continent would never change. you should have thought it will never come 1st and never be considered truly important. and the people will keep believing. it's a pure charity for russia. like helping the poor in the hungry when in reality, nothing could be further from the truth of what the only thing is 9. how well does russia understand african interests? ah, russia has a very clear idea of what africans interests are. this is an odd question to ask really. each country has its own interest to consider. what matters, however, is that no country should pursue its interests at the expense of others. and this is something russia understands very well. what does africa expect from russia? if timothy for one thing africans don't expect russia to give them money, leather nations across the african continent have been getting loans from the west and from china for years now. and all the africans,

i talked to attest to that. in fact, what they want is to develop a trade with russia, and especially to increase african exports to russia. if we look at our trade balance with african nations, we'll see that our exports to africa around 4 to 5 times higher than our imports from africa. that i see. ironically, this doesn't mean we export more goods to the african continent than we purchase from it. but the problem is we import african goods almost exclusively through middleman. i don't know if you're aware of this fact, but russia is the 3rd largest consumer of cocoa on the planet with that i'm talking cocoa, beans, cocoa powder, et cetera. conceptually, we could get all the coco we need directly from africa, but we don't do that. first, the cocoa travels back to switzerland than from switzerland to estonia, which is one of our neighbors. back in soviet times, there was a terminal built there to receive in store cocoa beans. russia doesn't have

a terminal like that said, nobody thought of building one. so we have to pay $3.00 times the price of the same cocoa, instead of buying it directly from africa. also, as a result, imports from africa are much smaller than they could, me, which in but there's more, like i said, naturally developing trade is a good thing. and we should be trading directly with africans. but what matters most is developing partnerships in the field of technology and the south africa is a young continent. and just like us, it is interested in rapid, high tech industrialization. in fact, africans are very much interested in russian technology. so i work at the academy of sciences, so i have a pretty good idea of how many brilliant tech products russia can produce. we've got some truly unique pieces of technology that aren't being used simply because at one time it was much simpler for us to buy ready made solutions off the shelf

machinery and equipment from the west. water production chains reformed. certain people were involved and obviously they had their own interests. as a result, there was no support for the development of these technologies in terms of launching them into mass production. but now the situation has somewhat changed with new opportunities, opening up for enterprises that produce russian made tech products and equipment. interestingly, in terms of technology, russia is particularly competent in areas that africa needs most energy, water, purification, agriculture, medicine space technology. i t smart cities. these are all priority areas for africa. the russia can offer africa lots of valuable engineering solutions to give you one example. we've created a certain type of fertilizer that when placed in the soil, stores moisture for up to 3 months in yeah, can you imagine how vital this is for african countries,

most of which are located in the arid zone. you put the fertilizer in the soil and you don't need to irrigate for 3 months for food. so when it comes to energy and food security to develop mental issue or the processing of mineral resources, something that africa has huge reserves of our geologists, our mining companies, our equipment, all that could really help them out. the same goes for transportation. we've got trucks and we've got trainings all of this is very much needed in africa because of and russia in turn would get a massive new market to sell and try out. our technology has no, the latter is really important. since rushes domestic market is not that large, 150000000 people, or perhaps a 152000000 with these new territories. while africa has nearly 1500000000 people. so on the one hand, this opens up prospects for russia, for our own development. and on the other hand, by capitalizing on our technology,

africa would be able to move to a new level of development instead of remaining a resource quality within the wider western systems. up of them capacity would pisec. there's the prospect so good to know that much is the clamp id. but what is actually being done? are we seeing any real partnership, the hat of any new contract sign that can move? so pick it up in 2019. we held the 1st russia africa summit, that was the 1st sign, so to speak, a sign that russia was serious about africa that it considers the african continent a strategic partner. unfortunately, shortly after that we got the corona virus pandemic, oceania was with us, and not long after that came russia's special military operation, fell, have a sadly, during that period we were unable to establish a wider, more systemic partnership with africa. every one knows that we need to work together was asked for calm them, but we are taking certain steps in that direction. but there's no comprehensive

program. a there have been isolated targeted steps taken at the government level. but in terms of political dialogue, this year rushes foreign minister, sir gay lavern, made 2 trips to africa, visiting 7 countries. and in the summer of 2022. he has been to 4 african nations visit. our companies have traditionally operated in africa and about 30 of our largest companies continue to do business there when they're carrying out large scale projects in africa. one of them being the construction of a nuclear power plant in egypt line, but, but that is certainly not enough. at mid sized businesses. tier 2 companies are not yet willing to go to africa because they're scared. first, as people have very little knowledge about africa and how it works, we've touched on that subject before. second, businesses have no assurance that they won't lose money. in this regard, we need to be more proactive in amending our legislation introducing new tools to

ensure that our businesses can safely operate on the african continent. starting with the issue of payment systems. i'm talking about switching to payments in national currencies. but i'm also talking about, you know, clearing and barter, like in the soviet period. we don't have that in our legislation now. it was all removed after the collapse of the ussr vital. we were left with the dollar and the euro as the main currencies for settlement. let's see what we need to do, of course, is to foster of public private partnership. that is, the state must create the conditions for businesses to operate on the african continent. for example, it could absorb some of the risks, reduce taxes, provide some guarantees, and this is crucial for our businesses to thrive there. that no, i do believe that many understand this now, but we need a strong push to gain momentum and kickstart the whole thing. granted, there was a push when our western partners turned their backs on us and we started searching

for new opportunities in terms of both exports and imports. i also think we gained an appreciation of who was our friend and who was our enemy that was in this respect, while the africans are actually ready to help us. we are no longer africa's big brother that brings knowledge and expertise. it is the africans themselves who are willing to come to our aid in a difficult situation. yes. there are many areas where they could support us. if we have a look at the african continent, it stands between the west and the east coast in modern logistics, having access to ports and channels far vessels, not necessarily military, but primarily commercial ships is of paramount importance. africa could offer us these opportunities. african nations are active across numerous international platforms, in the field of technology to meaning they could help us gain access to technologies . we've been cut off from by the west. if we're finally, like i said, it's

a major market for our own products often. and it is also a supplier of vital agricultural goods and strategically important metals that we do not possess. like cobalt, lithium, manganese and bach site. take for instance, the relatively small nation of guinea. it possesses about a 3rd of the world's bach site reserves. africa is important to us and i believe that our partnership will continue to evolve. but russia is not the only country that is interested in africa right now. in fact, is almost like a race. japan is actively pursuing goals and i forgot, as is china and me to lease from states. can russia compete with other countries in this race right now? they're all good. no bus. it's true. we're witnessing a battle for africa. and not just between the new players that you listed, the old players are still in the game european countries, the united states of america. and even though the china africa trade is at

$254000000000.00, the west remains africa's main trade partner. indian brazil are also active by the way. turkey is expanding its presence as well, especially in air, transportation, and industry once dominated by the soviet union of the soviet union left and we no longer fly to most of africa. the only african countries where we still fly to is egypt, and i think there are no other regular flights to africa. i think turkey took over the flights that the soviet union used to operate turkish airlines flight of 44 countries, if i'm not mistaken, it's 54 flights altogether. there are 2 flights to some destinations. and now turkey is a major transportation hub between africa and europe, with turkish airlines is the main operator there. and the gulf countries also share that market. like you said, the united arab emirates, saudi arabia and others. naturally, it's very difficult for russia to compete. but however, we have certain advantages,

we're the 1st, the people of africa know their history well, and they're grateful to the soviet union for everything it is done for them in the past. of course, yes, we can't appeal to this legacy forever and build our relations focusing on the past . but we must remember before that we trained a lot of specialists at soviet and russian university service. they speak russian and still hold important government offices, sergey lover of recently visited several african countries, and many leaders and ministers spoke with him in russian because they got their degrees in our country. this human capital is our leverage. also, unlike many other countries, we have always helped africa. we always said good that we are in the same boat working on reaching our share to goals. so they rely on rushes assistance, but again, we are talking mostly about technological solutions. listen for and there is

a lot we can do for them in that respect. i'm not, i'm not talking about military cooperation right now, but a few things must never the less be said. yep. again, the security issue is very important for african states where various terrorist groups are active. molly and burkina faso had been in france, his sphere of influence, and they ended up about driving the french out of their countries. why also? because france was absolutely useless in terms of providing security and making life safer for people in the same happened in the central african republic. rush approved its effectiveness in the car where it brought 43 tribal leaders to the negotiating table and brokerage apiece. it showed that russia can really guarantee security to an african country without taking advantage of it by getting its resources for next to nothing. so this experience was very valuable that africans want russia to help them with political stability and security. they realised that,

unlike the americans, for example, we have never interfered with their elections or tried to overthrow disloyal governments. they see our genuine desire for mutually beneficial partnerships. i think that this is our key advantage. good us, how well does rashanda sound the diversity of the african continent that as many think of africa as one country with the same culture and language will across they don't see the tapestry that is africa. have we grown in that understanding how well do we understand this diversity listed lengthy of them? we're still at them smith, you know, before we could speak of progress, we would really need to restore everything we used to have in the times of the soviet union. the ussr ran a ground breaking comprehensive research program in africa that produced a lot of academic writing. i thought the soviet universities were teaching 25 major african languages to their students, as opposed to 4 at the most. now, lots the ussr was sending missions to africa to study local culture and history. we

still have all this wealth of knowledge and russia in the form of books and artifacts that we collected. but the scope of research on africa has been significantly smaller in the past decades. the history of the institute for african studies itself is a good example. when i became a ph. d student here, back in 1984. there were a total of $400.00 faculty members who ran programs for $54.00 african countries, which means that at least 3 experts could focus on each of these countries full time, studying them extensively and in depth. there were also experts who studied the continent in general with its political and economic problems as well as regional studies that the institute also had a large number of experts on the ground collecting valuable data in the african countries for research. today, however, the institute has

a total of $87.00 faculty members and the center for tropical africa that studies most of the continent with the exception of the north and south today has only 7 experts. so it's very difficult to continue any research. nonetheless, try to promote african studies among the russian universities and offer internships to students. we also keep trying to promote the understanding of the importance of african studies in the government. so we could have experts with a better understanding of different african cultures. because it's very important, and they are indeed very different. they have different values and mentalities, different traditions up. and by the way, my opinion is that russian mentality is a lot closer to the african mindset than to that of china, for example. because both russian and african people have a community oriented mindset thanks to the long history of collective farming and being part of the community. knowing when to help each other out. when to get

together in order to overcome some difficulties and one to relax and i would say don't chill out, but never to give up. i'd say both russian and african peoples have these things in common. and i think this is the reason why african nations are mostly very friendly towards russians in general. i mean, to all ethnic groups in russia since russia is also a multinational country. and that is actually another thing that we've got in common with africa. because over 10000 ethnic groups that live in africa, some of them are in conflict with each other and yet they find a way to live close to each other. and so they can relate to the fact that russia also has a very large variety of cultures, languages and traditions them. it's also a factor that helps russian people as opposed to europeans. for example, understand africa a better because we can relate while europeans have always considered themselves

superior to africans. additionally, there may have been some groups in russia, mostly the so called new riches and the 1990s, who booking might have also thought this way. but other than that, most russians are very friendly and open minded towards people from africa. and i believe it's a good foundation for successful cooperation. right? h and o got banging as of worship. rose assists was given, the latest developments is, is there a new african strategy? imagining foreign relations? can you see it happening with this bill? was nice and lot guy national. i've been pretty certainly so much of a 1st. we've adopted a new concept of our relations with africa, which has taken several years to develop and to which our institute contributed a lot of concept. it's very detail at all. it says exactly how and in what areas we're going to build our relations with africa. i believe that the next russia africa summit, which will take place in saint petersburg in july 26th to 29th,

will be an important milestone above the heads of all african states have been invited on. i think the summit can only be a success if it sees the signing of some specific agreements and the emergence of a mechanism, a toolbox for our cooperation with africa, from the 1st russia, africa summit, which was held. and so she was certain to succeed because it was the 1st event of that nature and it was more of a demonstration. we showed our desire to return to africa. now, however, we need specific projects, and that's where we absolutely need seamless integration of all organizations and agencies, including our ministries, our businesses, our scientists, and of course, our government. if there's no political will, then we won't get far. but i think that there is an understanding now among the highest levels of power that the votes of 54 un member states are crucially

important to us. we realised that unique resources, including those needed to manufacture sophisticated, high tech equipment, military as well as civilian that africa has, are critical thing in mind. we realized that we need new logistic routes and a new pattern of transportation, replacing east to west communication with south to north route. but all of that is very important to fiddle. we realize that africa is the continent of the future. by about 2050 to southam, it'll be home to about 30 percent of the world's population. this will call for a new set of international political and economic relations and new trade patterns . we must be preparing for it to day. now, like africa, russia has a tendency to think in tactical rather than strategic terms. looking for quick fixes for emerging problems with his back in the day in 1990. i like giving this example. china's g d p was $780000000000.00 ukraine's g. d

p was 400000000. fast forward to now. and you can see where those countries ended up. however, strange it might sound to you in about what 20 years the economies of the biggest african countries will catch up to or even overtake germany. they will be among global economic power houses. we and russia must get ready for it. now, africa is a continent that's developing rapidly. it has a very young and growing population which brings its demographic dividends. well, let's look at the economic leaders of the day. see who are they? countries with large populations because they are china and india, which now has more people than china and is developing very fast. it's ahead of china and some areas for the same will happen to africa. again, if russia doesn't realize this, we won't be able to carve out

a nice for our country in this emerging new world. we chose them closer, other attempts by some other countries to sour relations between russian africa or how things not going that fall yet a year for gms. can astronomy lenient still look on your son? desolate to someone that shall oh yes, they have done. it has been like that from the start by you just look at the number of trips foreign leaders made to africa last year. that's. that's what every one went there. were talking about u. s. leaders, joe biden didn't go but antony blank and did as well as many of his emissaries were talking about france, britain, and germany, interestingly, ukraine's dmitri clay by went there several times. why, yes, and the reason that the whole gang part in this expression went to africa, was to convince african countries to stop working with russia. they're using the stick and carrot policy to mixing threats and blackmail to him. but with throwing

some money at them up to the prison, that's what they did at the u. s. africa leaders summit held in washington d. c. last december. where $55000000000.00 over 3 years was allocated to develop the african economy. that money, however, was promised, and not yet given, not only to the countries that wouldn't behave, she went into the collective west, is out to destroy our relations with africa. they're very much afraid of them. they would want to isolate russia, but if i suppose africa is the place where this isolation is failing, just look at the dignity displayed by the countries visited by lab roth. look at what the south african foreign minister said when she announced that they would maintain their neutral status and foster relations with russia, unless we will hold of joint naval exercises with south africa and china at the same time. the 1st of their kind. all the countries, even those that were pressured to vote on resolutions denouncing russia in favor of

the u. s. in ukraine, have refrained from imposing economic sanctions on us, but there will be pressure mounting on them. and we need to be aware of that. if we are to prevent this pressure from reaching its desired result, we have to take some specific steps and propose specific projects. there are a whole lot of opportunities here. i could go on and on talking about what we could do together and in what areas. all these projects are real and doable, and they could be used not just to garner african leaders support, but also to reach a new level of high tech economic growth together with our african partners. this is very realistic, goal roster stuck with sluggish novels that flung yes. click open, lenovo said we're waiting for this russia africa summit in july hoping to see some important contracts signed there to keep the chromebook and the dr. jo, this is my sincere hope, but it would take

a lot of homework of all our agencies are working hard to get there. i know because i take part in events and meetings every week because it would be great to go from words to action. of course, and let me repeat that we have a critical issue, the sort of right and we need to set up a government organization that would help encourage our companies to do business with africa nash until this is done, until there is a foundation, a center, or something like that, which would provide the government support for industrial, technological, and private initiatives in africa. we won't be able to get this stuff off the ground. we'll just have the same 30 companies working in africa, relying on their own networks of contacts and expertise. if we want to have this broader pivot to africa, if we want to have more companies, there is then government support is a must. i think our leaders understand this. and some mechanisms are being figured out in terms of finances and logistics,

which is key. and in terms of risk management and insurance, these problems can be resolved if there is sort of a political will. and if they are resolved, our cooperation will reach new heights to our mutual benefits a civilized source. thank you very much for such an interesting interview. for ah ah

ah. ringback the caution you spent with forced um, national guido, which is obviously still my job. a couple lead from when you do, i don't but hold a medical with national jump, a have to spend the copy of a new domain with

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