Observers see South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s absence at G7 as a sign of the growing discomfort with the friendship between the ANC government and the Kremlin
A year ago, Mr. Ramaphosa seemed confident that he could balance between the West and the East, despite the close links between Moscow and his ruling party, the African National Congress . His office, in a statement last June, boasted that he was “a regular invitee” at summits of the Western-dominated Group of Seven.
As one of the biggest and most diplomatically powerful countries on the African continent, South Africa would be a valuable prize for Russian President Vladimir Putin in his campaign to show that Western sanctions have failed to isolate him. He has courted Mr. Ramaphosa assiduously, and the campaign appears to be succeeding.
While the arms shipment was the most sensational allegation, Mr. Brigety had other grievances as well. He cited a resolution approved by the ANC at its latest conference, in December, that echoed Russian propaganda on the war in Ukraine. It accused the United States of “provoking” the war in an effort “to put Russia in its place” and claimed that U.S.-led “expansionist military strategies” were intended to create “Western imperialist dominance over Eastern Europe.
At an ANC meeting on the weekend, delegates cheered loudly when Mr. Ramaphosa told them he had spoken to Mr. Putin by phone Friday.
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