In Mali, its paramilitaries battle separatists. In Zimbabwe, it provides free grain. What is Russia’s game plan for Africa – and should the continent’s nations trust it more than America? Join us live on Thursday, 5 September.

In post-liberation Africa, post-Soviet Russia faded into the background as China offered trade and America offered both aid and trade.

Then much of the Sahel kicked out Western forces in favour of Russian proxy soldiers, and Russia offered free food after upending the global grain market with its invasion of Ukraine.

And a continent that still remembers the last time the great powers made it choose between them may again have to answer the question: dare we trust Russia?

In the five years since the first Russia-Africa summit, Russia has made good on many of its promises of deeper security cooperation with several nations on the continent.

Many African countries have resisted increasing Western pressure to step back from Russia. But that pressure is growing more forceful, with some American legislators suggesting friends of its enemy should be treated as its enemy, and Western Europe preparing for a potential direct military conflict, at some point in the future, with Russia.

READ | South Africa’s love for Russia: MPs praise Moscow’s ‘genuine interest in Africa’

In the meanwhile, Russia’s strategy remains murky. Is it a seller of weapons and military services, or does it seek to secure raw minerals without having to compete on the open market?

Is it trying to trap African nations into dependence for nuclear fuel, or is it offering energy independence by sharing its nuclear expertise at a small price? Is it seeking voting fodder on the floor of the UN, or is it genuine in its ambitions to build a multi-polar world?

And above all, given its recent track-record, can we believe anything Russia says?

For that and more, join News24’s foreign editor, Phillip de Wet, for a live virtual discussion with Russian Federation Ambassador to South Africa Ilya Igorevich Rogachev at 11:00 on Thursday, 5 September.