MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/. African leaders have been under colossal pressure from Washington which has intensified efforts to torpedo preparations for the Russia-Africa summit, Russian Ambassador-at-Large Oleg Ozerov said.

"We know that African leaders are currently experiencing unprecedented pressure, mostly from the United States, which has been intensifying its efforts to torpedo the coming summit slated to be held in St. Petersburg," Ozerov, who chairs the Secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, told a roundtable at the Federation Council (upper chamber of Russia’s parliament). "Just like in Ukraine, they are trying to escalate things," the senior Russian diplomat noted. "The more the situation deteriorates, the more adamant they get," he lamented.

Although arrangements for the summit "are being made amid a very tense situation," Ozerov said, the majority of African countries view Russia as an ally who has been fighting against the West’s neocolonialism and post-colonialism, while competing for new markets, diversifying from the United States or the European Union.