Ramaphosa congratulates Putin on re-election as Russian president

JOHANNESBURG - President Cyril Ramaphosa has congratulated Vladimir Putin on his re-election as Russian president.

Ramaphosa said both countries had mutual cooperation at the multilateral level, including common membership of the United Nations (UN), the Group of 20 (G20), BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and other multilateral bodies.

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Putin won a landslide re-election victory on Sunday, taking 87% of the vote.

Speaking on the Clement Manyathela show, Russia's Ambassador to South Africa, Ilya Igorevich Rogachev, emphasised that Russia and South Africa shared a similar vision for the future of geopolitics.

“It is absolutely necessary to mention that our countries share the view of the future world – the world we would like to live in, and we will live in, which is a polycentric world without the dominance of a single power or a single bloc of states.”

Ramaphosa added that South Africa would continue to engage both Russia and Ukraine in search of lasting peace between the two warring neighbouring countries.