The recent hosting of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the joint naval exercises with Russia and China to coincide with the first anniversary of the invasion undermine South Africa's claim to neutrality but it brings other benefits (AC Vol 63 No 9 War offers Ramaphosa more options & Vol 63 No 11 Diplomacy on ice)...

As this cauldron bubbled Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov came to Khartoum on 9 February not quite overlapping with the Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen who visited Khartoum on 3 February...

Thanking Moscow's 'Eritrean friends for their consistent support of Russian initiatives in the UN ' Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sketched out closer ties between the two countries after meeting with President Issayas Afewerki on 26 January at the end of his four-country tour of Africa (AC Vol 64 No 3 President Putin's Africa summit in July will be key diplomatic test)...

At the beginning of the week South Africa's Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor hosted her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov giving him a platform to applaud what he called Pretoria's 'well balanced' and 'considerate approach' towards Moscow on Ukraine (AC Vol 64 No 2 Moscow's goals are global not local)...

He was speaking alongside Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov who was on a regional tour drumming up African support for Moscow...

Damiba met Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly last month but it is not known whether Wagner was discussed...

To that extent in Africa Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who was in New York for the UN meetings this month has succeeded in framing the Ukraine war an east-west conflict...

When Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced at a press conference in Egypt on 24 July that his country's second Africa summit would now be held in mid-2023 he didn't explain the delay...