History, politics and mercenaries: why so many African nations are quietly standing by Putin

The 11th emergency special session of the 193-member UN General Assembly, on Russia's invasion of Ukraine (Credit: CARLO ALLEGRI /REUTER)

During the Cold War, Moscow supported many liberation movements across Africa – in countries including Angola, Mozambique and South Africa. Some aging elites even studied in Moscow and still speak fluent Russian, though these links have faded somewhat from the days of the USSR.

A more significant factor is Russia's huge military footprint on the continent. More than half of African nations have military cooperation agreements with Russia, and the country is the largest exporter of arms to sub-Saharan Africa.

Many governments that abstained from Wednesday's vote – such as Algeria, Uganda, Burundi, South Sudan, Mali, Mozambique, Sudan and Angola – rely heavily on Russian military hardware and guns to keep their soldiers kitted out. These countries are all authoritarian or dictatorial, with little regard for human rights abuses by their security forces.

The powerful son of Uganda's President of 35 years, Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, expressed his support for Putin's invasion on Twitter – “the majority of mankind (that are non-white) support Russia's stand in Ukraine”, he said.

Mr Kainerugaba is tapping into a noticeable strand of East African public discourse, which argues that Putin's attack on Ukraine is justified because of the West's antics in Africa and, more recently, in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan.