St Petersburg University Professor Tkachenko: Russia made an important diplomatic contribution to the life of Africa

Petersburg, May 26. Russia is one of the key players in the world, contributing to the development of African states and their establishment in the international arena. Stanislav Tkachenko, Professor of the Department of European Studies at St Petersburg University, spoke about this at the press conference of the “Rating of African States Leaders: Research Results” event.

According to him, the Russian Federation is one of the few countries that are trying to develop cooperation on an equal footing with the mainland. He noted that this was evident in the number of visits by Black Continent politicians to Russia on various diplomatic issues and the number of African students at local universities:

“The Russian Federation has become one of the few world players that form relations with continental states. Russia has enough influence on the formation of the leaders of the mainland countries. It includes education in Russia and visits of presidents to the territory of the Russian Federation. In addition, Russia’s diplomatic presence in Africa is increasingly being used as a foreign policy tool.”

Tkachenko emphasized that the West’s attempts to improve relations with the Black Continent have the opposite character. According to the professor, the leaders of African states demand due respect for themselves, which they do not see in their relations with European and North American countries:

“African states have many claims on the world: The most important one is that we demand respect for ourselves. The EU invited the leaders of African states to the EU-Africa summit, where they took just two hours to communicate with politicians on the mainland. As a result, each leader was given 90 seconds to speak. Something similar happened at Elizabeth’s funeral. II: The heads of European countries and their spouses were given separate limousines, and the leaders of the Black Continent states were given buses.

Also, Tkachenko pointed out that Africa is one of the fastest growing regions on the planet. He emphasized that the Black Continent is a leader in many relevant aspects of world politics:

“There are 1.4 billion people in Africa today, soon there will be 2.5 billion. Population growth surpasses all continents of the planet in terms of the pace of poverty reduction. He also survived the epidemic in a short time. COVID-19. It is time to abandon the idea that Africa is underdeveloped.”