Faced with Western economic sanctions over the
conflict in Ukraine, Russia is looking to Africa to rebuild what was
once a big market for its weapons and technology during the Soviet era, VoiceofAmerica reports.
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union,
Russia was an active supplier of weapons to Africa but lost most of
its market share. It is now the world’s No.2 arms exporter after the
U.S. but sales to Africa are a small small fraction of its total sales
volume, according to VOA.
Russian government-owned industrial
giant Rostec says it is on track to build a $4-billion oil refinery in
Uganda and a $3-billion platinum project in Zimbabwe.
Rostec has a vast
portfolio that includes Russia’s monopoly arms exporter. Some Ugandan
opposition lawmakers were concerned about a company being chosen with close
links to Russian arms exports.
When the Zimbabwe platinum deal was signed in
September, Zimbabwe’s defense minister said the Southern African country was
looking at possible weapons purchases from Russia as well, VOA reports.
“Civil projects have always aided weapons exports,”
said Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy head of the Russian security and defense
think tank, Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. Russian firms
are interested in increasing exports to Africa because the region’s weapons
market is growing very fast, VOA reports.
Rostec controls hundreds of firms ranging from
the world’s top titanium producer VSMPO-Avisma to arms exporter
Rosoboronexport, and sees the Ugandan and Zimbabwean projects as a door opener
in Africa, particularly to its fast-growing arms market, according to VOA.
“Apart from proceeds from the project itself,
building the crude oil refinery (in Uganda) opens markets for products of all
Rostec’s companies and Russian companies as a whole,” Rostec said in a
statement to Reuters.
In 2013-2014, Rosoboronexport signed more than 20
contracts worth more than $1.7 billion with sub-Saharan African countries,
according to VOA.
Rosoboronexport is working with Angola, Equatorial
Guinea, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria and Tanzania and is also looking to
develop cooperation with Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda, Rostec said.
Photo: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe speak to the press in Zimbabwe, Sept.
16, 2014.