The EU is crushing Russia in Africa. USD 355 billion versus USD 27 billion in turnover

The Kremlin promised African leaders billions of dollars in trade deals in 2019, but little came of it. Last year, trade between African countries and Russia amounted to approximately USD 27 billion, while at the same time with the European Union it exceeded USD 355 billion.

During the first Russia-Africa summit, the Russian side signed 92 economic agreements with African countries and declared that trade with this continent would double within five years. At that time, the trade amounted to USD 14 billion, according to data from the African Center for Strategic Studies, a think tank established by the United States Congress. This means that this trade should amount to approximately USD 70 billion in the coming year.

Russia is far from achieving this goal. Last year, trade between African countries and Russia amounted to $24.5 billion, and this year it increased to only $27 billion, or less than 40 percent. what Putin promised at the Moscow Summit. Apart from the EU, India and Türkiye, not including China, have much higher trade turnover with the continent.

Moscow builds relations on illusions and does not have the capacity to achieve its political goals in Africa, summed up the Kremlin's actions in a recently published report by the South African Institute of International Affairs.

Additionally, Russia's trade with Africa is characterized by disproportionately high Russian exports, currently amounting to approximately USD 21 billion. But most of this amount went to three countries: Algeria, Egypt and South Africa, mainly in the form of weapons and, most recently, oil, which the Kremlin offers to all interested parties at very discounted prices.

According to ADF magazine, published by the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), with an economy based mainly on oil, mining and arms trade, Russia finds it easier to demonstrate power through propaganda than through actual investment or bilateral trade.

One of Russia's biggest megalomaniacs is Rosatom, the state nuclear energy corporation, which recently boasted that since 2015 it has concluded contracts for the construction of over 20 nuclear reactors in Africa. However, she has not completed any project yet.

Rosatom signed agreements, among others: With

• Burkina Faso,
• Burundi,
• Egypt,
• Ethiopia,
• Ghana,
• Guinea,
• Mali,
• Morocco,
• Nigeria,
• Namibia,
• Niger,
• Rwanda,
• Uganda,
• Zimbabwe.

From this list, the country where the Russian company is actually implementing a contract is Egypt, where the construction of a power plant in El Daba has been going on for years.

Currently, South Africa remains the only African country with an operational Koeberg nuclear power plant, in the construction of which Russia had no involvement. (PAP)

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