RUSSIAN AND CHINESE INFLUENCE IN AFRICA
Both Russia and China inherited a reservoir of goodwill from many African states, a result of the facts that neither Moscow nor Beijing had a colonial history in Africa, and that both supported African anti-colonial movements during the Cold War. This is especially true of Russia, and especially true in South Africa, where memories of the Soviet Union’s support for the anti-apartheid African National Congress (ANC) run deep. After the end of apartheid and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Western leaders pressed new South African President Nelson Mandela about why he supported Russia and its agenda. Mandela angrily replied that the Soviet Union had been the only international source of support for the ANC as it battled apartheid. On a 1999 visit to Moscow, Madela made his gratitude clear, saying “We received enormous assistance from the Soviet Union, an assistance which we could not get from the West and Russia should have been the very first country I visited and I've come to pay that debt now.” [16] Russia also has current sources of influence in Africa,some of which stems from Africans’ frustration with Western assistance. As noted earlier, the Wagner Group/Africa Corps successfully leveraged frustration with Western peacekeeping/counter-terrorism missions in the Sahel, convincing several countries in that region to eject Western forces and replace them with Russian mercenaries. As Dan Whitman notes, Russia’s presence and activities are self-serving, but many Africans expect this and are unperturbed by it, preferring naked selfishness to what they see as Western hypocrisy. Whitman argues that Russian narratives appeal especially “to young Africans who are fed up with the Western presence. With justification, they see the West as having supported regimes, not people.” Tying Russia’s influence back to the Soviet Union’s support for African liberation movements, Whitman concludes, “Adding a few lies to a sound anti-colonial narrative has served it well.” But there are clear limits to Moscow's influence in Africa. Some of these are structural and out of Moscow’s control, and some are a result of its own actions. In the latter category is the fact that Russia focuses on ties with elites and generally ignores the needs of African populations. This is especially true of the Africa Corps, which focuses on regime protection, and either does not address the needs of ordinary Africans, or commits grave human rights violations against them. A 2025 report from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) alleges that Russian mercenaries in Africa “regularly shared photos and videos of murder, rape, torture, cannibalism and desecration of corpses against alleged insurgents and civilians”. [19] [15] [17] [18]
// RUSSIA AND CHINA IN AFRICA Delphi Global Research Center
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