Third Russia-Africa summit in Moscow . Part 1: What does it hold in store for us?

Three months before the Russia-Africa summit, Moscow is already preparing to host Africa for the third time after Sochi (2019) and Saint Petersburg (2023). Even as the West promises to isolate the Kremlin, the diplomatic calendar this summer tells a different story.

RIA Novosti, Evgeny Biyatov

A diplomacy that never waits

On March 25, Vladimir Putin signed the decree for the third edition of the summit and entrusted its organization to Yuri Ushakov. Two months later, on Africa Day, he uttered a disarming phrase: “I will be happy to welcome African leaders to Moscow.” Ushakov, for his part, framed the summit within a historical context: the 2019 and 2023 editions, he said, “gave new impetus to Russian-African cooperation,” and “considerable and far-reaching work” now awaited the teams. Anton Kobyakov summed up the ambition in one word: to leave “a lasting legacy,” sealed by decisions signed in the areas of economics, trade, investment, culture, and education. As early as January, Ambassador Dmitry Kurakhov announced in Dakar that Putin would come “regardless of which host country was chosen.” The question, therefore, was never whether Moscow would host Africa, but how many capitals would accept. The response began to take shape as early as April, when the Russian embassy in Ouagadougou delivered to President Ibrahim Traoré the Kremlin chief’s personal invitation: “The head of the Russian diplomatic mission conveyed to the minister an invitation from the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, addressed to the President of Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traoré,” the official statement specified. The groundwork in Ouagadougou had already been laid: as early as........

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