Soviets emphasized identifying likely allies and giving them financial aid and munitions
Explanation:
Soviet Union-Africa relations covers the diplomatic, political, military and cultural relationships between the Soviet Union and Africa, from the 1945 to 1992. Joseph Stalin made Africa a very low priority, and discouraged relationships or studies of the continent. However the decolonization process of the 1950s and early 1960s opened new opportunities, which Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was eager to exploit. The Kremlin developed four major long-term policy goals: 1) To gain a lasting presence on the continent. 2) To gain a voice in African affairs. 3) To undermine Western/NATO influence, especially by identifying capitalism with Western imperialism. 4) After 1962, it fought hard to prevent communist China from developing its own countervailing presence. At no time was Moscow willing to engage in combat in Africa, although its ally Cuba did so. Indeed the Kremlin at first assumed that the Russian model of socialized development would prove attractive to Africans eager to modernize. That did not happen, and instead the Soviets emphasized identifying likely allies and giving them financial aid and munitions, as well as credits to purchase from the Soviet bloc. Although some countries, such as Angola and Ethiopia, became allies for a while, the connections proved temporary. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian influence greatly diminished.
