Zimbabwe’s position on Russia

As the Russo-Ukrainian war rages on, Russia (facing global isolation) has adopted a foreign policy to reach out to former socialist allies. Zimbabwe is one such ally. Moscow officials recently visited Zimbabwe and the ZANU PF-led government pledged support for the communist state.

Harare then sent a delegation led by Speaker of the House of Assembly, Jacob Mudenda to Moscow to reciprocate the recent visit.

“Zimbabwe was and will remain on Russia’s side even after the referendums in Ukraine,” Russian news outlet RIA Novosti reported Mudenda as saying.

“Zimbabwe was on Russia’s side even before the referendums in terms of understanding the root causes of the current situation. Zimbabwe and Russia are both victims of sanctions and that makes us comrades in the sanctions battle. To the extent that we are victims of sanctions, we share with Russia the same consequences of sanctions.”

Moscow recently annexed a swath of Ukraine, after referenda results showed support in four partially occupied provinces to join Russia. Ukraine and its allies in the West denounced the votes as “illegal sham referendums held at gunpoint”. Although Harare has not officially recognized the new regions joining Russia after the referendums, Mudenda said the process has already been initiated at the Cabinet level.

Advocate Mudenda also said Zimbabwe was looking at establishing direct flights between Harare and Moscow though Zimbabwe has less than 3 functional airplanes.

“We work on that the Russian airline flies to Zimbabwe, and when we have appropriate airline equipment also to reciprocate that gesture by the Russian airline.”

Mudenda added that Zimbabwe is determined to develop multilateral relations with Russia, saying that there is an intention to boost the cooperation at the highest level.

Zimbabwe has pursued a questionable foreign policy since the early 2000s when then-president Robert Mugabe adopted the Look East policy. The policy which was adopted with the hope that Eastern economic giants like China would cushion Zimbabwe from her economic woes did not bear fruit. Almost 20 years after adopting the policy, Zimbabwe remains a fringe friend to China, still isolated and still struggling economically. Adding Russia to the list of allies will not have significant benefits to the Zimbabwean citizens.