by Harley Schlanger, LaRouche Organization:

With 49 African nations attending, the Russia-Africa Forum opens today in St. Petersburg.  The agenda includes discussion of cooperation in infrastructure, energy, food self-sufficiency, and expansion of the use of national currencies in trade.  Putin greeted delegates, praising the growth in trade between African nations and Russia, despite sanctions and external interference.  As this is occurring, Germans are receiving more bad news about the declining state of their once-powerful economy.