ST. PETERSBURG, Russia
\nSome African leaders arrived in Russia on Wednesday for a summit with President Vladimir Putin as the Kremlin seeks more allies amid the fighting in Ukraine.
\nPutin has billed the two-day summit that opens Thursday in St. Petersburg as a major event that would help bolster ties with a continent of 1.3 billion people that is increasingly assertive on the global stage.
\nOn Wednesday, Putin met separately with Ethiopia\u2019s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and said Russia will more than triple the number of Ethiopian students it hosts and cover their education costs.
\nLater in the day, Putin is set to hold talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
\nAfrica\u2019s 54 nations make up the largest voting bloc at the United Nations and have been more divided than any other region on General Assembly resolutions criticizing Russia\u2019s actions in Ukraine.
\nIt\u2019s the second Russia-Africa summit since 2019, and the number of heads of states attending shrank from 43 then to 17 now because of what the Kremlin described as a crude Western pressure to discourage African nations from attending it.
\nKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov deplored \u201cunconcealed brazen interference by the U.S., France and other states through their diplomatic missions in African countries, and attempts to put pressure on the leadership of these countries in order to prevent their active participation in the forum.\u201d
\n\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely outrageous, but it will in no way prevent the success of the summit,\u201d Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
\nPutin\u2019s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said that while only 17 heads of state will attend the summit, 32 other African countries will be represented by senior government officials or ambassadors.
\nThe summit follows Russia\u2019s withdrawal from a deal that allowed Black Sea exports, vital to many African countries, a move that drew a strong condemnation around the world and raised new threats to global food security.
\nRussia shrugged off criticism and doubled down by launching a barrage of missile attacks on Ukrainian ports and agriculture facilities.
\nAt the same time, Putin has repeatedly pledged that Russia would offer free grain to low-income African countries now that the grain deal has been terminated.
\n\u201cI want to give assurances that our country is capable of replacing the Ukrainian grain both on a commercial and free-of-charge basis,\u201d Putin said in a statement Monday, asserting that Russia shipped almost 10 million tons of grain to Africa in the first half of the year.
\nAlong with grain, another issue that will likely figure on the talks\u2019 agenda will be the fate of Russia\u2019s Wagner military company led by Yevgeny Prigozhin following its brief rebellion against the Kremlin last month.
\nWagner\u2019s future will be an urgent issue for countries like Sudan, Mali and others who contract with the mercenary group in exchange for natural resources like gold. Russian officials and Prigozhin have said the company will continue working in Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia Some African leaders arrived in Russia on Wednesday for a summit with President Vladimir Putin as the Kremlin seeks more allies amid the fighting in Ukraine. Putin has billed the two-day summit that opens Thursday in St. Petersburg as a major event that would help bolster ties with a continent of 1.3 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-345695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n