Russia says world is entering irreversible multipolar era, calls Nigeria a pivotal power

Russia says world is entering irreversible multipolar era, calls Nigeria a pivotal power

Andre Podelyshev, Russia’s ambassador to Nigeria, has said the global system is moving toward an irreversible era of multipolarity and warned that attempts to divide the world into rival blocs will create new conflicts.

He delivered the message on Wednesday at the Ambassadorial Forum titled Russia’s Foreign Policy and its Priorities: Prospects for Multilateral Diplomacy, organised by the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in Lagos.

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Podelyshev said Russia’s foreign policy is driven by the belief that power is now shared across many centres and must be managed through cooperation. “Russia is not proposing a new Cold War,” he said.

“We are proposing a new culture of international interaction, one through which we look for partners, not enemies.”

Eghosa Osaghae, director general of the NIIA, said Nigeria welcomed the engagement. “Nigeria wants to put this into perspective and say what exactly is going on and what Russia will do for us,” he said. Russia’s case against bloc politics

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The ambassador argued that global security can no longer be built on fixed alliances or rigid blocs. “Block thinking is not only an inequity, it is dangerous,” he said. “Attempts to divide the world into hard opposing camps will lead to new rounds of conflict in a more complex multipolar world.”

He said Russia supports a system based on equal security, partnership among regions and dialogue across integration groups. According to him, the new form of multilateral diplomacy must focus on “a positive agenda, peace, development and the fight against foreign threats.”

Podelyshev described Afrixa as an increasingly independent actor in global affairs. “Africa is not a pawn in someone else’s game,” he said. “It is becoming a player in its own right.”

He praised the continent’s growing institutional strength, noting the formation of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963, the transition to the African Union in 2002 and the adoption of Agenda 2063.

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He also pointed to the African Continental Free Trade Area which brings together a market of more than one point three billion people. He said African states now “formulate autonomous positions” on issues from security council reform to trade and climate.

On Africa’s response to the war in Ukraine, he said many states had taken a position of neutrality. “This shows a developed sense of dignity and geopolitical agency,” he said.

Podelyshev said Nigeria is impossible to overlook in any conversation about Africa’s future. He called the country “one of the key states of the continent” with major political and economic weight.

He noted Nigeria’s position as Africa’s most populous nation, one of its largest economies and a major oil and gas producer with influence in OPEC. He said Nigeria’s role in ECOWAS, peacekeeping missions and the African Union gives it regional authority.

The ambassador said Russia supports Africa’s effort to speak with a common voice on the global stage. He stressed that Moscow views African states as equal partners with full respect for their sovereignty.

He recalled that tens of thousands of Nigerians have studied in Russia since the Soviet era. “This tradition continues every year,” he said, adding that hundreds of Nigerian students still enrol in Russian universities.

He described the evolving relationship as a “partnership for development” built on mutual interest rather than political conditions.

Faith Omoboye is a foreign affairs correspondent with background in History and International relations. Her work focuses on African politics, diplomacy, and global governance.

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