Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov today described as “blackmail” comments by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that Washington will not tolerate China increasing its exports to Russia of dual-use goods and is ready to respond with sanctions, Reuters reported, BTA reported. According to Peskov, Washington's tone is completely unacceptable and Moscow stands in solidarity with Beijing.
The US has said that by providing dual-use goods, both civilian and military, China is helping Russia in its war against Ukraine. China and Russia have sharply increased bilateral trade since the start of the war, while Russian trade with the West has been severely restricted by sanctions.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today that Moscow will deploy additional military instructors to Burkina Faso to help the African country strengthen its military capabilities. Burkina Faso, ruled by the military since a 2022 coup, has hosted contingents from the private military company Wagner, whose founder Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a plane crash last August.
„From our first contacts since President Ibrahim Traore came to power, we are very closely engaged in all areas of cooperation, including the development of military and military-technical ties,” Lavrov said, quoted by TASS, during visit to Burkina Faso. “I have no doubt that thanks to this cooperation the remaining foci of terrorism on the territory of Burkina Faso will be destroyed,” he said at a press conference in the capital Ouagadougou.
Lavrov has made a series of visits to Africa since the start of the war in Ukraine as Russia, hit by Western sanctions, seeks new trading partners and tries to woo developing countries with its vision of a multipolar world no longer dominated by the US and former European colonial powers. Russia's growing security ties to Africa, including countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, where the military has seized power in coups, are a source of concern for the US and other Western governments, Reuters notes.