Aside from having to pacify Modi Ramaphosa's diplomatic role was simplified because Russia's President Vladimir Putin had stayed away due to his International Criminal Court arrest warrant...

But opaque relations between Wagner and the Kremlin allow a useful ambiguity for President Vladimir Putin...

And when President Emmerson Mnangagwa thanked Russia's President Vladimir Putin for his offer of 50 000 tonnes of free grain at Africa summit in St Petersburg on 27-28 July he insisted that Zimbabwe was food secure but would accept it anyway...

Announcing he 'stands in solidarity with Russia's President Vladimir Putin' Mnangagwa accepted a gift of 50 000 tonnes of grain and a helicopter that he intends to use for election campaigning...

Malian junta leader Col Assimi Goïta pronounced himself 'very satisfied' on his Twitter account following a lengthy phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on 14 June...

Opinion is divided in western Libya on how far President Vladimir Putin might succeed in forcing Wagner fighters in Russia and Ukraine to sign contracts with the defence ministry in Moscow as he demanded in his 26 June television broadcast to the Russian nation...

The two – Prigozhin and Hemeti – betrayed the men who initially sponsored their forces President Vladimir Putin and General Omer Ahmed Hassan el Beshir respectively...

If President Vladimir Putin plans to go ahead with his grand Africa-Russia conference in St Petersburg on 22-23 July he will have to resolve the status of Prigozhin and Wagner in countries such as Mali Burkina Faso CAR Sudan and Libya which formed a key cohort of cheerleaders for Moscow on the continent (AC Vol 64 No 3 President Putin's Africa summit in July will be key diplomatic test) ; Wagner may be swallowed into a 'legal' private military company that would normalise its operations in line with other such companies operated by the Ministry of Defence Gazprom Rosatom and other state entities...

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa who led the delegation to St Petersburg told Russian President Vladimir Putin that 'the war has to have an end'...

Putin's presence is key issue for BRICS summit Looming large at the BRICS (Brazil Russia India China and South Africa) foreign affairs ministerial meeting in Cape Town on 1 and 2 June was the question of whether the leaders' summit in August would be held in the country and whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would attend despite his indictment for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (AC Vol 64 No 3 President Putin's Africa summit in July will be key diplomatic test)...