US diplomats have warned 14 countries, most of which are in Africa, as well as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Turkey, that Russian ships loaded with stolen Ukrainian grain can go on the road.
ProAgro Group reports that The New York Times wrote about it in its editorial.
The American warning has only exacerbated the dilemma for African countries, many of which already feel trapped between East and West. After all, they may face a hard choice: either profit from war crimes and dislike a powerful Western ally, on the one hand, or give up cheap food at a time when wheat prices are rising and hundreds of thousands of people are going hungry, on the other.
Last Friday, the head of the African Union, Senegalese President Macky Sall met with President Putin in Russia to secure supplies of grain. Critics argue that the trip, during which Mr. Sall recalled his “dear friend Vladimir,” played right into Putin’s hands, offering him yet another tool to exploit the international community’s divisions.
That said, many of the African countries are ambivalent about sanctions against russia for reasons that include their dependence on russian arms sales, Cold War sympathies and perceptions of Western double standards.
