Russia calls on Africa to demand lifting of anti-Moscow sanctions

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Moscow, as the West's ties with Africa deteriorate, calls on its partners in the continent to demand that the West lifts its sanctions on the Russian Federation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.

The top Russian diplomat said his country would continue to faithfully fulfill its contractual obligations to supply food, fertilizers, and energy to African countries regardless of the sanctions imposed on Moscow, which are adversely affecting its ability to keep its economy floating.

The US and its allies, in light of the Ukraine war, have rolled out comprehensive sanctions, including restrictions on the Russian central bank, export control measures, SWIFT cutoff for select banks, and closure of airspace to all Russian flights. Many of their companies have suspended their Russian operations.

"We call on our friends, the African Union, to demand, persistently demand, from the West the lifting of illegal unilateral sanctions that undermine the transport and logistics infrastructure necessary for world trade, which creates risks primarily for vulnerable segments of the population," Lavrov said, speaking at a reception on the occasion of Africa Day.

"The voice of Africa must be heard," he said, stressing that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres should take a "more principled" position on the issue of the world ignoring Africa.

He also underscored the importance of Russia and Africa creating joint financial mechanisms protected from Western pressure, Lavrov said.

The Russian Ambassador to Angola, Vladimir Tararov, had reported earlier this month that the West was going so far as exerting pressure on African states that it was even resorting to immoral actions like threats.

Lavrov commented on Africa's stance toward Ukraine, praising said stance and saying African countries take a balanced and objective position on the situation in Ukraine despite the discriminatory pressure stemming from Washington.

"We know that the unceremonious line of behavior of Western countries sometimes provokes open rejection on the African continent," the minister added, though he acknowledged that Africa's friends would not succumb to Washington's discriminatory pressure.

Russia highly appreciates the readiness of African countries to further expand the political dialogue with Russia and build up economic, humanitarian, and other interactions, Lavrov concluded.

The top diplomat had previously announced that his country's relations with the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as the Asia-Pacific region, West Asia, Asia, Africa, and Latin America were gaining a new impetus.

According to Lavrov, Western countries had "once and for all" undermined their reputations through predatory actions toward foreign partners and countries. He also stressed that no country was immune to "state piracy" and expropriation, which led various countries to reduce their dependence on the US dollar, Western technologies, and markets and were practically pivoting away from the West as a whole.