Putin says that African leaders will get free food and calls Western penalties "hypocritical."

At a summit meeting of African heads of state and government, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would give them tens of thousands of tonnes of food within a few months, despite penalties from the US and other Western countries. At a Russia-Africa meeting in St. Petersburg on Thursday, Putin said that Russia expects a record grain crop and is ready to replace Ukraine's grain exports to Africa through trade and aid. This is part of Moscow's important role in making sure there is enough food for everyone around the world. "Over the next three to four months, we will be ready to give Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic, and Eritrea each 25,000 to 50,000 tonnes of free grain," the president said. "We will also ship these items to customers for free.

He said that Russia sent out 60 million tonnes of grain last year, 48 million tonnes of which were wheat. In response to criticism from the West about Moscow's decision to leave the Black Sea Grains Agreement, under which it had let Ukraine ship grain from its seaports even though there was a war going on, Putin said that promises made to Russia to keep its own grain and make it easier to export fertiliser have not been kept. The Russian president said that over 70% of Ukraine's food exports went to countries with high or above-average incomes, like the European Union, because of the now-defunct deal. He said that the poorest countries, like Sudan, were "cheated" out of less than 3% of the shipments. In another place, President Putin said that Western sanctions put in place because of the Ukraine war had even stopped Russia from giving free fertiliser to poor countries.

"An odd picture starts to take shape. On the one hand, Western countries make it hard for us to get grain and fertilisers, and on the other, they blame us hypocritically for the current food crisis on the world market, he said. Moscow has said that it won't repeat the deal until the deal is changed to make it easier for Russia to sell food and fertiliser. Russia says that 49 of Africa's 54 countries are at the Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg. Of these, 17 are represented by their heads of state and 4 by their heads of government. The summit is called "the highest and most comprehensive event in relations between Russia and Africa" by the people who put it together. On Tuesday, the Kremlin said that the U.S., France, and other Western countries are putting pressure on all African countries like never before to keep them from going to the Russia-Africa meeting. Over the past 10 years, Russia and China have gotten closer to African countries in many ways, including trade, energy, and defence relations.

Russia has good relationships with many African countries because of the ties they made when the Soviet Union was in power. Their economic and moral goals are often the same, and they both dislike the West, which makes their relationships even stronger. The war in Ukraine has shown that Middle Eastern and African countries are working with world powers in more and more different ways.