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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Soviet Union/Russian Federation's Relations with South Africa, with Special Reference to the Period since 1980
Author:Shubin, VladimirISNI
Year:1996
Periodical:African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society
Volume:95
Issue:378
Period:January
Pages:5-30
Language:English
Geographic terms:South Africa
Soviet Union
Russian Federation
Subjects:foreign policy
African National Congress (South Africa)
international relations
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/723723
Abstract:On the eve of the 1980s a qualitative change took place in the USSR's support to the ANC. In reaction to the growing popular opposition to the apartheid regime, Soviet assistance, in particular to the ANC's military operations, steadily increased. Secondly, the USSR decided in 1981 to establish contacts with legal antiracist forces inside South Africa. Relations between the USSR and the ANC developed further in the 1980s, Soviet assistance increased in all fields and a common approach to the prospects of settlement in southern Africa was worked out and sustained. The democratization of the political system in the USSR also affected the South African liberation movement. Soviet policy toward the ANC started to change, and in 1989 the first real sign of disagreement appeared. However, the movement already enjoyed broad international support and it managed to overcome the loss of its 'natural ally'. Nonetheless, the shift of Moscow's policy in favour of the white South African regime in 1991-1992 had a negative effect on the process of political settlement in South Africa. It allowed the government to take a more intransigent position and weakened the prospect of profound social and economic transformation in the country. Ref.
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