South Africa allowed Russian aircraft to land on base under US sanctions

JOHANNESBURG — South African officials last week authorized a cargo plane targeted by US sanctions for supporting Russia’s military effort to land at an air base near the capital Pretoria, a move that has heightened tensions with the United States could further increase.

That’s what US officials said earlier the aircraft is known for shipping weapons for the Russian armed forces. South Africa’s defense ministry said in a statement Wednesday that the plane was delivering diplomatic mail for the Russian embassy. South African officials have declined to say exactly what was loaded onto and removed from the aircraft.

South Africa’s decision to allow the plane to land goes against US efforts to isolate Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

While South Africa is not bound by the US sanctions, the landing “will only exacerbate strained relations with the US,” said Steven Gruzd, a researcher on Russia’s relationship with Africa at the South African Institute of International Affairs.

Although South Africa has declared neutrality in the war between Russia and Ukraine, he added, its foreign policy has increasingly leaned towards Russia.

“It’s always a choice,” Mr. Gruzd said. “South Africa chooses to do this.”

A spokesman for the US Embassy in Pretoria declined to comment on the landing. The Russian embassy also did not respond to a message to a spokesman.

The landing, reported on Thursday on Business Daya South African news outlet, comes as the United States has already expressed concern over whether the government in Pretoria helped Moscow during the war in Ukraine.

The United States warned South Africa that it could face repercussions if it is found to have provided material support to the war in Russia. During a trip to South Africa in January, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the United States would respond “swiftly and harshly” to governments violating US sanctions, a message echoed by another top Treasury official during a meeting with the South African government. delegation. monthly meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, the leading Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement that the landing of the plane was an affront to South Africa’s relationship with the United States.

“The South African people remain important partners of the United States, but we can no longer accept the government’s continued hostile actions against US sovereign interests and must respond appropriately,” he said.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is already facing a political storm over whether his government will execute an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for President Vladimir V. Putin if the Russian leader visits the country as part of a summit planned for August.

Flight radar data shows the plane, an Ilyushin IL-76, originated April 21 at the Russian Chkalovsky military airfield near Moscow and made intermediate stops in the Middle East and Africa: Baghdad; Cairo; Damascus, Syria; Algiers; and Marrakesh, Morocco. It then went to Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and continued to Angola.

The plane then took off from Luanda, Angola, and landed at South Africa’s Waterkloof Air Force Base on April 24, the defense ministry said. (Flight records show a secret stop that day, presumably in South Africa.) The plane continued on to Harare, Zimbabwe, the next day.

The Russian embassy had made a formal request to the South African foreign ministry to allow the plane to land at the base, where diplomatic jets are allowed to travel, the defense ministry said.

It is not uncommon for countries to deliver diplomatic correspondence by air, but such deliveries are prone to abuse, said Kobus Marais, a member of South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance. Mr Marais questioned why the plane was not using a nearby commercial airport, which is more typical for unloading diplomatic bags, he said.

Diplomatic mail can be as small as a few envelopes or as large as a container, but a defense analyst, Helmoed Heitman, said it’s unusual for Russia to use a cargo plane to deliver packages to its embassy.

The flight plan and landing were most likely affected by Western sanctions, Mr. Heitman. “They may have suspected that if they landed at a commercial airport they could be arrested,” he said.

The plane belongs to Aviacon Zitotrans, a Russian company, and was one of the company’s planes hit by sanctions from the US Treasury Department in January as part of drastic measures against Russian entities. Aviacon did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

The company has shipped military equipment around the world, including nuclear warheads and missiles, the Treasury Department said.

In December, a Russian container ship called the Lady R, which is under US sanctions, was allowed to dock at the South African naval port outside Cape Town. Allow a commercial ship to use a naval facility caused concern among South Africans.

A US official in South Africa said the US government believed Russia could use munitions and rocket fuel in the war may have been loaded onto the Russian tanker.

South Africa’s Defense Minister Thandi Modise said the ship was delivering “an old open order for munitions”.