MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. Using the pretext of enhancement of transparency of state institutions in Africa, the US fuels anti-Russian sentiments in the region through the media, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

According to the spokeswoman, the Foreign Ministry noted that the US Department of State allocated grants to African journalists, education facilities and the NGOs for countering the alleged Russian propaganda.

"Using enhancement of transparency of state institutions and improvement of sustainability of the judicial system on the African continent, they fund the search for the hand of Kremlin in a classical with hunt fashion," she explained.

"We perceive this as Washington’s aspiration to curb the positive public and political background in relations between our country and the region, which has become particularly apparent, following the 2019 Russia-Africa Summit. It feels like the US deliberately fund anti-Russian publications in a number of African media and seek to paint our country as a some sort of destabilizing force," she said.

The diplomat underscored that the grant allocation falls in line with the White House’s efforts to promote the idea of zero alternatives to the Western policies of state governance, and to impose alien values on sovereign countries.

"We consider it a yet another display of neo-colonialism, albeit more covert. An element of covert enforcement of inequality in the common system of international ties," Zakharova said. "And considering the 60th anniversary of UN Declaration of independence of colonial countries and peoples this December, we call on our US colleagues to follow the spirit of this most important historic document and to completely abandon the mentor tone towards the developing countries."

The Russia-Africa Summit took place on October 23-24, 2019, in Sochi, under joint presidency of Russia and Egypt. It was attended by representatives of all 54 countries of the continent, 43 were represented at the highest level. Eight major African integration associations and organizations participated in the event.