LAST week, two countries – Russia and the United States – the two major global players for that matter, paid visits to Zimbabwe simultaneously, but unrelated visits, which, however, were both significant in as far as they exposed the US as a self-righteous master that seeks to prescribe to Zimbabwe tenets and principles it does not practice and which it often tramples upon.
The two delegations from Russia and the US, have since both left these mineral-rich lands for their respective homes in the east and the west, to which they are separated not only by the Arctic and Pacific Ocean, but also by a great chasm in terms of ideology and their position on the developing world in general and Zimbabwe in particular.
On one hand, the US, which was built by the sweat and blood of enslaved Africans without returning virtually any of the gains to the enslaved people or their descendants, would want to, according to their courier Mr Robert Scott, a lowly officer in the US State Department, dictate how Zimbabwe runs its elections and enacts its laws.
While on the other hand, the Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of the Sverdlovsk Region of the Russian Federation Mr Yarin Vyacheslav visited Zimbabwe to talk about economic trade and investment, in relations that are mutually beneficial to the people of the two sovereign states.
Some background to the meeting will suffice.
Speaking at a stakeholder meeting with business people in Harare, Mr Vyacheslav said their visit to Harare was meant to open new frontiers of trade, that could help create jobs and accelerate Zimbabwe’s modernisation and industrialisation.
“Today, Zimbabwe is among the top 20 African countries in which the Sverdlovsk Region has foreign trade relations,” he said.
“The Sverdlovsk Region is a major industrial hub of Russia located in the central part of Russia on the border of Europe and Asia, at the intersection of major railway roads and air routes.
“There are almost 13 000 industrial enterprises operating there. Traditionally strong industries are among the metallurgy and machinery.
“Chemistry, pharmaceuticals, logistics, information, technology, and medical equipment manufacturing are also successfully developed in the Sverdlovsk Region.
“Sverdlovsk Region foreign trade includes more than 150 foreign countries and we are in the top 10 constituency building of the Russian Federation which constitutes more than half the whole industry and production shift in the country.”
That is a pitch of opportunities that Zimbabweans can grab in Russia, opportunities which were offered with no strings attached as is the norm of the US.
And here is what Mr Scott, after meeting Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Ambassador Fredrick Shava said, rather condescendingly and unashamedly.
“We discussed important topics such as the upcoming elections, non-violence elections, and the PVO Bill. These are some of the concerns we expressed during the meeting,” said Ambassador Scott.
Earlier upon arrival, he had said: “I am here to engage in a series of meetings with Government, civil societies, and other actors in the political and social-economic arenas to listen, to take on board their messages to me and also to pass along our hopes from the US specifically for peaceful and inclusive elections that will be my primary go of my trip here.”
All this he said when his country had just renewed the illegal sanctions they have maintained on Zimbabwe since the turn of the century, imagine the gall of Mr Scott, to poke his nose into the country’s law-making processes, seek to be educated while his country has maintained a unilateral law on Zimbabwe inappropriately named Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001.
That his country continues to bully sovereign nations and arrogate itself powers to define and prescribe to other nations what they purportedly package as the blueprint of democracy, can only mean one thing – that the West has not dropped its colonial instinct, that the relationship between Africa and the West, is that of rider and master, that we, without discernment we are likely to have puppets installed as leaders, in the false democracy narrative.
Zimbabwe has to stand firm and stand tall against these bully tactics, which confirm the long-held view that the West has not dropped its colonial instinct, that is why in this day and age some countries are still colonies of the western nations, that is why in this day and age America fights a proxy war, not only most recently in Ukraine, but in different, but key geo-global locations where it seeks to safeguard its selfish interests.
Is it not, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently raised at a G20 press conference, that the West, which seeks to encroach and isolate Russia has engaged in unlawful behaviour in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Yugoslavia among others, raised the threat of terrorism and encroached on those nations’ sovereignty when in essence the West was never threatened by the situations in those countries.
Justifying their unilateral sanctions, the US feebly claims that Zimbabwe continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of Washington.
Exactly, how this small nation of fewer than 16 million people becomes a threat to the fourth largest country in the world and a superpower, beggars belief, but more than that it demonstrates that Zimbabwe is ever in constant danger after all the US modus operand needs no dissecting for it is self-evident in ruined countries all over the world.
What is important is Harare now knows what the US, itself the sponsor of regime change, dissent, and chaos in the global south, is up to and has come up with the PVO Bill that will separate genuine NGOs from vehicles of regime change, masked as advocates of democracy.
Already, the 2023 elections are under threat, as the meddlesome West dangles a stunning US$37 million to sponsor oppositional forces in the country, and have proxies in the power saddle to perpetuate their foreign policy.
While the US has always worked to undermine the independence and sovereignty of African states, through illegal legislations such as ZIDERA and the proposed Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act, which was crafted last year and is yet to reach US president Joe Biden’s desk, Russia has always been unfaltering in support of Africa.
It was Russia, not the US, that stood with Africa during the liberation struggle, and it is Russia along with China that has vetoed attempts by the US and her allies to punish Zimbabwe at the United Nations.
The condescending, smug righteousness of Americans, which is self-fulfilling, is just a reminder to all discerning voices that a new world order anchored on multilateralism is imperative.
As Charles Dickens wrote in his acclaimed book of fiction, “The Tale of Two Cities”, this could be “the best of time, the age of wisdom” to pivot Zimbabwe’s relations towards progressive nations and organisations like BRICS and forget about the West. – The Herald
