JOHANNESBURG — Whereas the USA and Europe have pressured international locations to show their backs on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, South Africa has doubled down on its longtime alliance with Moscow — a friendship that dates to the wrestle in opposition to apartheid.

Russia and South Africa, together with China, are scheduled on Friday to start out 11 days of joint navy workout routines off the east coast of South Africa that can embrace a Russian warship bearing the letters Z and V — Russia’s patriotic symbols for its battle in Ukraine — and carrying what Russia boasts is a hypersonic missile.

In current months, South Africa has welcomed to its shores a Russian business vessel, referred to as the Girl R, that was beneath American sanctions. The 2 international locations’ overseas ministers met final month and exchanged smiles, jokes and reward for the connection between their nations.

“I’m actually proud that we get pleasure from glorious diplomatic relations together with your nation, which we regard as a valued companion,” Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s overseas minister, mentioned throughout the assembly along with her Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, in Pretoria.

At a time when Russia is seen by many as a pariah nation, the Kremlin has turned for assist to South Africa, essentially the most developed financial system and an influential voice on the African continent.

South Africa will get a superpower ally that may assist it inflate its international affect. And South African officers additionally see a possibility to assist their nation’s beleaguered financial system by growing commerce with Russia, simply as Moscow is looking for pleasant nations to do enterprise with to bypass American and European sanctions.

Mzuvukile Maqetuka, the South African ambassador to Russia, advised Russia’s state-run information outlet Sputnik that the international locations had been discussing growing investments in oil and hydroelectric energy, and beginning direct business flights from Moscow to Cape City.

The 2 international locations have had heat relations for 30 years, as a result of the Soviets backed the African Nationwide Congress, or A.N.C. — now the governing celebration — within the combat in opposition to apartheid.

However U.S. officers have raised alarm, accusing South African officers of offering materials assist to Russia’s battle effort by permitting the sanctioned vessel, the Girl R, to dock. They’ve warned South Africa in opposition to serving to Russia evade sanctions. The U.S. has a spread of penalties at its disposal, from rolling again support funding or commerce privileges to imposing sanctions.

The European Union, South Africa’s largest buying and selling companion, can be apprehensive that South Africa is “transferring additional away from a nonaligned place,” Peter Stano, an E.U. spokesman, mentioned in a press release.

South Africa denies aiding Russia’s battle. However the scrutiny underscores the tough diplomatic dance of a midsize nation making an attempt to cozy as much as a number of superpowers, with out alienating any of them. In a single week final month, the South African authorities hosted the U.S. treasury secretary, the Russian overseas minister and ministers from the European Union.

“We’re not selecting one facet on the expense of the opposite. ,” mentioned Clayson Monyela, the top of public diplomacy for South Africa’s overseas ministry. “Each are necessary.”

The extent that South Africa shifts towards Russia is a take a look at of Russian president Vladimir V. Putin’s technique to model himself as a pacesetter of a world coalition of nations pushing again in opposition to Western dominance.

Mr. Lavrov has already visited seven African international locations this yr. He solid Russia as an ally for African international locations to withstand Western “makes an attempt to falsify historical past, to erase the reminiscence of the horrible crimes of the colonizers, together with genocide.”

Vadim Zaytsev, an professional on Russia’s Africa coverage, wrote on Tuesday that he noticed a well-worn three-part technique in Mr. Lavrov’s pitch: exports of arms and expertise; financial cooperation outdoors Western channels; and applications selling Russian-language schooling and humanitarian initiatives.

When the invasion started on Feb. 24 final yr, Ms. Pandor’s ministry initially launched a press release calling on Russia to withdraw from Ukraine. However South Africa has since walked again that stance.

South Africa was one among 35 nations — 19 from Africa — to abstain in a United Nations vote final October to sentence Russia’s deliberate referendums in territory that Russia had claimed to have taken over in jap Ukraine. Ms. Pandor, in her information convention with Mr. Lavrov, instructed that Ukraine was truly a risk to Russia due to all of the arms it had acquired from the West.

South African authorities officers insist that South Africa is formally “nonaligned” in line with the rules of the Non-Aligned Motion, a coalition of principally small to midsize nations that got here collectively throughout the Chilly Warfare.

However a U.S. official in South Africa mentioned the American authorities believed that munitions and rocket propellant that Russia might use within the Ukraine battle could have been loaded onto the Russian tanker, the Girl R, whereas it was docked in South Africa. The official, who requested anonymity to debate delicate diplomatic issues, declined to supply proof, however mentioned the U.S. was contemplating whether or not to take motion in opposition to South Africa.

Mr. Monyela of South Africa’s overseas ministry referred to as the allegation false.

“Anyone that makes that declare must produce proof as a result of it’s very straightforward to allege that one thing has occurred and can be very harmful,” he mentioned.

South Africa and Russia are already companions in BRICS, an alliance they share with Brazil, India and China. The bloc, based in 2001, has positioned itself as a competitor to western-dominated alliances just like the G7 and a voice for the pursuits of smaller and growing nations.

“You’ve bought leaders that at the moment are listening to the African individuals,” quite than dictating what they need to do, mentioned Lindiwe Zulu, the chairwoman of worldwide relations for the A.N.C. “It’s what we really feel once we are in these BRICS conferences. We really feel like we’re companions in one thing that’s not being imposed on us.”

In uncooked {dollars}, South Africa’s financial relationship with Russia is dwarfed by its commerce with both the European Union, China or the USA. However South Africa’s bond with Russia is deeply emotional.

Through the combat in opposition to apartheid, the Soviet Union supplied cash, navy coaching and different assist to the African Nationwide Congress, the liberation motion turned ruling celebration. The US authorities, alternatively, labeled the A.N.C. a terrorist group and didn’t formally assist sanctions in opposition to the apartheid regime till 1986, only some years earlier than apartheid lastly fell.

When Western international locations slam Russia for invading Ukraine, South African officers don’t hesitate to carry up Europe’s colonial conquests in Africa, and America’s invasions of nations together with Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Most of the European international locations haven’t even apologized for what they’ve achieved to Africa,” mentioned Khulekani Skosana, the nationwide chairman of worldwide relations for the A.N.C. Youth League. “A few of them nonetheless proceed to see us as subhuman.”

Mr. Skosana has firmly thrown his weight behind the Kremlin. He traveled to Jap Ukraine final yr to behave as an observer for Russia’s broadly condemned referendums and has likened the federal government of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to the apartheid regime.

One issue that may endear the governments of South Africa and different international locations on the continent to Russia is Moscow’s hands-off method, in comparison with the USA, which frequently requires democratic reforms as situations for support and commerce, mentioned Lauren Hess, a Washington-based overseas coverage analyst from South Africa.

“Folks expertise it because the U.S. dictating to South Africa,” Ms. Hess mentioned.

The affinity of South Africa’s authorities and political leaders towards Russia could also be out of step with the views of the inhabitants as an entire. Current polls instructed that South Africans would quite reside in western international locations than in Russia, and that they seen the USA’ affect on their nation extra positively than Russia’s. An evaluation final yr of Twitter posts in 13 African international locations, together with South Africa, confirmed principally detached or unfavourable attitudes towards Russia, in keeping with the South African Institute of Worldwide Research.

Critics inside South Africa accuse authorities leaders of being caught up in nostalgia. They argue that the Kremlin is utilizing South Africa as a pawn in a world public relations train to sanitize Russia’s picture.

After the Russian consulate posted a photograph on Twitter of a warship alongside the shores of Cape City, Geordin Hill-Lewis, the mayor and a member of South Africa’s foremost opposition celebration, replied, “Cape City is not going to be complicit in Russia’s evil battle.”

Detractors additionally refute the narrative that Russia and Mr. Putin have pure intentions in Africa, stating that Russia sells arms to African international locations, has taken over mining pursuits all through the continent, and deployed mercenaries, primarily with the Wagner Group, a safety firm run by a Putin ally, in a number of international locations.

“Nothing about Moscow’s engagement in Africa evokes confidence,” Lindiwe Mazibuko, a former chief within the Democratic Alliance, wrote in an opinion piece within the Sunday Instances. “And the autocratic ambitions of Vladimir Putin are definitely not a coverage hill any African nation needs to be keen to die on.”

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Lynsey Chutel contributed reporting from Johannesburg and Anton Troianovski from Berlin.