MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. Seeking to preserve its colonial influence in Africa, the West resorts to blackmailing African nations and manipulating the energy, food and finance markets, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Africa Department Vsevolod Tkachenko said at the plenary session of the 3rd International Youth Forum ‘Russia-Africa: What’s Next?’

"The remnants of colonial relations in the economy and world economic ties still persist and are exploited by the collective West to keep Africa under its thumb and view it as a source of its own enrichment," the diplomat said.

"Our opponents are not going to readjust at all <…> The unfair treatment of many African partners practiced by some former metropolises and other Western countries in the form of various sanctions, manipulation of the energy, food and finance markets, direct blackmail and the cutoff of aid through international institutions due to their mercenary influence - everything manifests that the colonial system has not been completely overcome yet," the diplomat stated.