The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine historically began in February 2014 following the Ukranian revolution of dignity, which initially focused on the status of Crimea and Donbas as part of Ukraine. In 2021 and early 2022, there has been a major Russian military build-up around Ukraine’s borders to which the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has accused Russia of planning an invasion to which president Vladimir Putin criticised the enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) as a threat to Russia and demanded Ukraine to be barred from joining this inter-governmental military alliance, while also citing that Ukraine has historically been a child of Soviet Russia. Let us quickly give a critical analysis of why ‘Putinist view’ or rather why the Russian federation is right in averting NATO forces and why Africa should continue to strengthen diplomatic ties with Russia without fear of favour despite what the westernsponsored media is reporting. First of all, the world should begin to know and appreciate that multilateral institutions such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have thus far been used as a tool for western imperialism. The killing of civilians in Ukraine is a mischaracterisation of the state of affairs in order to paint Russia as if it was a bad country.

These multilateral institutions never condemned the genocide conducted by Ukranian forces in 2014 in Donbas when Ukranian military was killing unarmed civilians. This selective application of justice should be condemned with the contempt it deserves because it is a means of trying to bully the world into a singular perspective that basically represents US dominance. If the UN and the ICJ were fair, they should have condemned what NATO did in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

The world needs a different form of global governance which represents all people and not just some parts of the world. At least Russia is being decisive in conducting this necessary military operation in Ukraine with some degree of respect because it is not targeting civilian areas but rather military areas. The context of what is happening in Ukraine is that the Russian Federation has taken a necessary and decisive step to avert the eastward expansion of NATO, especially in eastern Europe which is closer to Russia. With Ukraine joining NATO, that is the existing security threat to Russia to allow NATO to establish military bases surrounding Russia, given the bloody history of NATO forces that NATO have conducted wars which were senseless.

They killed head of states such as Muammar Gaddafi. Therefore, Russia is not wrong to avert NATO’s expansion into eastern Europe, especially toward its borders. Russia is the biggest supplier of oil and gas to Europe and the world and to surround Russia with NATO’s military bases which can opportunistically be used to attack Russia is wrong. Of course, another element is that of the defence of ethnic Russians in Donbas and other separatist elements of the Russo-Ukranian conflict. Another reason why Russia could be right in averting NATO forces is that in terms of international law and practice, there is something called equal and indivisible security, that the security of an individual country or state is inextricably linked to the security of the neighbours or even to the region as a whole. Therefore, Russia took a correct step in stopping NATO’s military expansion into eastern Europe. Historically, the US and NATO have been taking over countries globally for selfish reasons. NATO have destroyed Libya for selfish purposes, killing civilians mercilessly. It is very sad for African countries to vote against Russia even worse and shameful for Namibia whose independence is linked to the Soviet Union that they have voted as ‘neutral position’ in a situation whereby an elephant is standing on a tail of a mouse. The West can put all sanctions on Russia and call everybody in support of Russia’s decision a ‘Putinist’ but at least Russia should die with his boots on rather than dying on his knees.