Russian envoy to visit Sudan with businessmen, MPs

Russian envoy to visit Sudan with businessmen, MPs
From Sudan Tribune, Monday 8 March 2010:

March 7, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — Russia’s Special Envoy to Sudan Mikhail Margelov will begin a four-day visit to Sudan on Tuesday, March 9. He will be heading a delegation that includes businessmen and parliamentarians.

Moscow last year signalled its desire to boost private sector relations between the two countries. A delegation that included Russian business and media representatives visited last December with Margelov during a six-day trip. The envoy on that visit met with President Omer Al-Bashir in Khartoum and First Vice-President Salva Kiir Mayardit in Juba. Margelov is scheduled to visit Juba again on this trip.

During the upcoming visit, the Russian envoy will be holding talks with state officials on bilateral relations between the two countries as well as the latest developments in Sudan, according to the state Sudan News Agency.

He will also be holding talks with the head of the National Elections Commission, political leaders and leaders of civil society organizations.

The Russian envoy last December drew some fire for comments seemingly in support of President Al-Bashir’s election bid in the forthcoming April polling. He was quoted by the Russian Ria Novosti news agency’s Arabic service as saying "I have not yet seen this alternative [to Bashir]…". He added he had tried to convince Western nations in January 2009 that the arrest warrant against Al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court (ICC) – which was issued thereafter in March — "is not viable and unrealistic".

Margelov suggested further that he was sceptical that there were any other viable candidates for the nation’s presidency. He said too, "There is an emerging feeling that the ICC decision on arresting the current Sudanese president was rushed and politicized".

The Russian official was also involved in efforts to pressure rebel groups into talks with the Government of Sudan. On October 21, 2009, he met for the first time the leadership of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement during a visit to the Chadian capital Ndjamena. (ST)