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President Vladimir Putin opens Russia's first ever summit with dozens of African leaders on Wednesday as Moscow seeks to vie for influence on the continent with the West and China.
        The Russian leader called the two-day event "unprecedented" as the Black Sea resort of Sochi prepared to host over 3,000 business representatives and other delegates. Putin contrasted Russia's approach to cooperation with Africa to what he called the West's desire to "pressure, frighten and blackmail" African leaders in order to "reap superprofits". Russia is "preparing and carrying out investment projects worth billions of dollars" in Africa, Putin said in an interview with TASS news agency. For Putin, the summit is a chance to revive Soviet-era relationships and build new alliances, bolstering Russia's economy following five years of Western sanctions. He will also look to once again burnish his credentials as a top global player the summit will take place after Putin discusses the Syrian crisis with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Sochi on Tuesday. Moscow was a crucial player on the continent in the Soviet era, backing independence movements and training a generation of African leaders. But Moscow's ties with Africa declined with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and in recent years China has emerged as a top foreign power on the continent, forcing Russia to play catch-up.
        In many ways the Kremlin is borrowing from China's playbook. To expand its influence, Beijing in 2000 launched the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and has poured tens of billions of dollars into the continent. Russia cannot match China's economic might but, like Beijing, it is prepared to support African leaders with controversial rights records in exchange for access to the continent's riches. Russia "is ready not to 'redistribute' the continent's wealth, but to compete for cooperating with Africa", Putin said. The leaders of former Soviet client states such as Angola and Ethiopia will be at the summit as well as representatives of countries where Moscow's engagement has been traditionally low, like Nigeria and Ghana. Putin, who has been in power for the past 20 years, has preferred to host African leaders at home. The only country in sub-Saharan Africa Putin has been to as president is South Africa, which he has visited three times since 2006.