GIGA Insights | 30/07/2023

Analysis and Background on the 2023 Russia–Africa Summit

Dr. Julia Grauvogel and Dr. Tim Glawion, political scientists at the GIGA Institute for African Affairs, explain the background to the Second Russia–Africa Summit on 27 and 28 July 2023, in interviews with various German-language media outlets.


  • Russian President Vladimir Putin received African presidents and prime ministers for a two-day Africa summit in St. Petersburg on 27–28 July 2023. Dr. Julia Grauvogel and Dr. Tim Glawion explain to German-language media outlets what interests African governments are pursuing, what Russia itself wants in Africa, and what Russian power politics on the continent looks like.

    “Russia wants to use this summit to convey the image that it is not as isolated internationally as the West is trying to portray,” Grauvogel says. Russia is pursuing various economic and geostrategic interests in Africa, for example raw materials and gold in exchange for arms supplies.

    According to Glawion, from the African side, the meeting is less about the interests of the respective countries’ domestic populations. Rather, a “pact of the elites” is planned, according to which states such as the Central African Republic, Mali, and Sudan hope to retain their influence with Russia’s help.

    You can hear and see and h the assessments of our researchers in reports on ZDF’s heute journal, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, MDR Aktuell, and NDR Info, among others. 

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