Sandego.net – Vladimir Putin used a Moscow gathering with African leaders to make a familiar case: Russia, he said, can offer the continent a partnership distinct from the approach taken by Western powers. But the leaders who attended are pursuing their own priorities, using a crowded international field to seek security, investment, food supplies, energy cooperation and diplomatic leverage.

The third Russia-Africa Summit brought delegations from 48 of Africa’s 54 countries to Moscow for two days. Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said 22 countries sent heads of state, up from 17 at the 2023 summit and 43 at the inaugural event in 2019. For Moscow, those images carry political value at a time when the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions have deepened Russia’s isolation from many European and North American governments.…