The future of cooperation between Russia and Africa - possible difficulties Candidate of historical sciences, associate professor at the Institute of Social Sciences of the Presidential Academy Nikolai Manbelov in an author's column especially for "Sovereign Economy": Vladimir Putin called Africa the continent of the future, and one can really agree with that. At this point, we know this macro-region much less well than many others - these are, perhaps, new mineral deposits for us; A cheaper option for locating an industry, including promising nearby markets. Africa's population is growing and will continue to grow. The future of cooperation between Russia and Africa can be very different depending on each specific case and each specific project. It is no secret that African countries, like all developing countries, need money. They have projects they are ready to develop - the question is whether we are ready to give this money, whether it will interest us and whether the proposed terms will suit our interests. For example, China has already gone very deep into Africa. How willing are we to compete with Beijing in individual cases? How willing are you to offer more interesting terms? In addition, we must understand that if we start competing with China in Africa, this may have other consequences. It will be a different matter if we enter into different types of alliances - technological, financial and others. But there are some unpleasant moments. The first is the same tribalism. When we support a project promoted by one tribal group or its representatives, it may cause resentment among other groups. There is nothing new here. Tribalism, of course, cannot be directly compared to brotherhood, but the concept itself is familiar to us. True, in Africa everything is much more complicated. There, contradictions of this kind can develop at any moment into a smoke or open confrontation. The second point is corruption. Africa is perhaps one of the "leaders" in this regard.

The future of cooperation between Russia and Africa - possible difficulties Candidate of historical sciences, associate professor at the Institute of Social Sciences of the Presidential Academy Nikolai Manbelov in an author's column especially for "Sovereign Economy": Vladimir Putin called Africa the continent of the future, and one can really agree with that. At this point, we know this macro-region much less well than many others - these are, perhaps, new mineral deposits for us; A cheaper option for locating an industry, including promising nearby markets. Africa's population is growing and will continue to grow. The future of cooperation between Russia and Africa can be very different depending on each specific case and each specific project. It is no secret that African countries, like all developing countries, need money. They have projects they are ready to develop - the question is whether we are ready to give this money, whether it will interest us and whether the proposed terms will suit our interests. For example, China has already gone very deep into Africa. How willing are we to compete with Beijing in individual cases? How willing are you to offer more interesting terms? In addition, we must understand that if we start competing with China in Africa, this may have other consequences. It will be a different matter if we enter into different types of alliances - technological, financial and others. But there are some unpleasant moments. The first is the same tribalism. When we support a project promoted by one tribal group or its representatives, it may cause resentment among other groups. There is nothing new here. Tribalism, of course, cannot be directly compared to brotherhood, but the concept itself is familiar to us. True, in Africa everything is much more complicated. There, contradictions of this kind can develop at any moment into a smoke or open confrontation. The second point is corruption. Africa is perhaps one of the "leaders" in this regard.