SOUTH AFRICA'S ON-OFF-ON RELATIONSHIP WITH RUSSIA.

The ongoing controversy around thea suspicious late night docking and cargo handling of the Russian ship Lady R in Simon's Town Naval Base in December shows no sign of going away. Especially not after the explosive allegation, made by the US Ambassador Reuben Brigety in April, that claimed South Africa had shipped military equipment to Russia on board it

WITHOUT GETTING INTO the details of the Lady R controversy, which has already been covered extensively claims that has been made in support of South Africa’s ongoing and very friendly relationship with Russia. Namely, that the Russian government, when it formed the core of the USSR and later as the Russian Federation, has been a steadfast and loyal friend of the African National Congress and the cause of freedom in South Africa in general, and an unwavering opponent of the Apartheid regime.

It turns out this isn't quite true.

There was a period between 1987 and South Africa’s first full democratic elections in April 1994 where first, the USSR, and then the Russian Federation were more than happy to do business with the Apartheid regime, even to the point of engaging in sanctions- busting, inviting South African military personnel for visits to Russia, and collaborating on top secret development projects.

This was driven by the new pragmatic approach of Mikhail Gorbachev, who approach of Mikhail Gorbachev, who became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985 and who keenly understood the USSR’s desperate need for more foreign income after its disastrous misadventure in Afghanistan and years of an increasingly sclerotic domestic economy. The result was Perestroika, a massive restructuring of the Soviet economic and political system that was officially announced in July 1987.