Western countries are pressuring African states in an attempt to prevent them from attending the upcoming Russia-Africa Summit in Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

The alleged pressure comes ahead of the October 28-29 gathering. The leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger are expected to attend, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Alimov said on Thursday. The three Sahel states have strengthened ties with Moscow in recent years.

“We are certainly observing attempts by our detractors in Western nations to pressure African partners in an effort to prevent them from coming to Moscow,” Zakharova said.

She described it as a continuation of a colonial approach toward Africa, stating that “former colonial powers are failing to keep pace with a changing world” and that Western countries continue to seek to dictate foreign policy choices to African states.

The spokeswoman did not name the countries involved or provide specific examples. She said African states pursue independent foreign policies based on their national interests and expressed confidence that the summit would be held with broad African representation.

In September, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov singled out France, claiming that President Emmanuel Macron would use a trip to Africa to try to dissuade African leaders from attending the summit. Lavrov said Moscow’s suspicions were based on “certain facts,” but did not provide details.

Earlier this year, Zakharova raised similar concerns, saying Russia had encountered attempts to obstruct African participation in the 2023 summit and ministerial conferences in Sochi in 2024 and Cairo in 2025.

Ahead of the St. Petersburg summit in 2023, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused the US, France, and other Western countries of using their diplomatic missions in Africa to pressure governments to prevent active participation. He said such efforts denied African states the sovereign right to choose their own partners.

Tensions over African countries’ ties with Moscow have also spilled into economic relations. Senior US lawmakers that year questioned South Africa’s eligibility for trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), citing Pretoria’s military ties with Russia, and sought to move an annual US-Africa trade forum out of the country.

Washington has publicly claimed that African countries should be free to choose their own partners. “America will not dictate Africa’s choices. Neither should anyone else,” then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in 2022.

The inaugural Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi in 2019 drew official delegations from all 54 African countries, with 45 represented by heads of state or government. The second summit in St. Petersburg in 2023 drew official delegations from 48 countries, with 27 represented by a head of state or the second-highest-ranking official.