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Herald Correspondent
The Federation of Russia’s governing party, the United Russia Party (URP), has said it is reaching out to governing parties in Africa and pledged political and economic support against Western pressure by accelerating the Russia-Africa cooperation from a state to party basis.

Russia has already started working on modalities to ensure that its trade commitments with traditional partners remain open despite impediments initiated by the West through sanctions.

The URP through Supreme Bureau Council member Mr Klimov Andrey last week said since signing cooperation agreements with Africa in 2020, Russia-Africa relations have enjoyed great renown and his party is ready to help Africa.

Russian leaders are set to have a conference with South Africa’s leaders to discuss about the food security status and energy guarantees ahead of a BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) meeting set for June.

Mr Andrey, who was addressing journalists via video, said there is need for Russia and Africa to be pro-active as colleagues, saying Russia will stand by Africa to withstand European pressure following the former’s special military operation in Ukraine since February 24.

“Africa should realise that Russia is ready to help for we were never a coloniser. There is a damage that colonialism did to Africa which we are undoing and for the past thirty years, we have been countering Western neo-colonialism in Africa.

“We are having a meeting of ruling parties of BRICS countries in June to discuss on how we can have a policy towards Africa where it is not viewed as a source of resources. From our view and help, Africa and China have jointly reached new relations pertaining to that opposed to how western neo-colonialism views Africa,” said Mr Andrey.

Mr Andrey also said the use of sanctions by the USA and the European Union (EU) against Russia are creating shortages of commodities in the world market and pushing commodity prices high which will affect millions of Africans.

Russia has already started working on how to ensure its wheat and oil products reach Africa using affordable means despite sanctions.

Mr Andrey said his country will not be a by-stander while the West wants to induce famine in Africa.

“The conflict in Ukraine is now a war between the USA and NATO against Russia. This has nothing to do with Ukraine. The USA is also sponsoring opposition parties in Russia as it does in Africa and because of that, we all need to be pro-active as friends.

“Many Africans will face starvation as a result of this but we will ensure that our food and trade obligations are delivered in order to help Africa,” he added.