The President of Zimbabwe called his country and Russia victims of sanctions

Relations between RUSSIA and Zimbabwe are developing well, although the countries are under sanctions, President Mnangagwa told RBC. Sanctions on Zimbabwe have been in place for over 20 years Vladimir Putin and Emmerson Dambuzo Mnangagwa (from right to left)

Zimbabwe and Russia continue to "strengthen, deepen and expand" contacts with each other. This was stated to RBC by President of the African country Emmerson Mnangagwa on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa summit.

“The most important thing is that Russia is under sanctions, Zimbabwe is under sanctions. So we are victims of the sanctions regime, who cooperate with each other,” the HEAD of state said, answering a question from RBC about which areas of interaction he considers the most important and how sanctions affect this interaction . According to the president, relations between Harare and Moscow are already "at an excellent level."

The volume of trade between Russia and Zimbabwe in 2021 amounted to $42.7 million.

Sanctions against Zimbabwe have been in effect since 2002 - then restrictive measures were introduced by the European Union and the United States . This happened after, since 2000, at the initiative of the then head of state Robert Mugabe (he was in power first as prime minister and then president from 1980 to 2017), a land reform began in the country, as a result of which almost all whites lost their property farmers.

After the overthrow of Mugabe from the presidency in 2017, the EU and the US retained sanctions - they are extended annually. Washington calls the following conditions for their abolition: ensuring freedom of the media, carrying out economic reforms, as well as compensation for white farmers who have lost their farms. Brussels emphasizes that the situation with human rights in Zimbabwe is not improving, and the measures taken by the leadership of the republic are targeted and limited and do not affect the people of Zimbabwe, the country's economy, investment and trade .

With regard to Russia, the sanctions of the EU, the United States and their allies have been intensifying since the start of the special operation in Ukraine . In March last year, Moscow became the world leader in terms of the number of restrictive measures imposed against it, overtaking Iran.

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On July 27, at the plenary session of the summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that in the next three to four months Moscow was ready to supply 25,000-50,000 tons of grain to six African countries free of charge. These include Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea. “We will also provide free delivery of these products to consumers,” the head of state said.

In turn, the head of the state corporation Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, named Zimbabwe among the states that Moscow considers potential partners in the field of nuclear energy. Together with her, he named Burundi, Kenya and Rwanda. “Very large field for work. Africa, on the one hand, is a fairly typical continent - many countries are similar in economic and technological structure, but at the same time very diverse. Such a paradox. It is clear that everywhere you need to look for those approaches that will allow you to work with unfilled national budgets, but at the same time there is a very wide choice of approaches and ways to organize these projects,” Likhachev told reporters.