Reports indicate that Sergey Lavrov, the minister of foreign affairs for Russia, has arrived in Kenya on an unexpected visit.
On Monday morning, the Moscow Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the brief announcement that Mr. Lavrov had arrived in Nairobi.
In a tweet, the Russian embassy in Nairobi predicted that this would be “a very fruitful week for bilateral relations between Russia and Kenya.”
William Ruto, president of Kenya, chose not to attend Monday’s inauguration of Bola Tinubu as president of Nigeria.
Days after Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine, visited Africa last week, Mr. Lavrov made his trip there.
Kuleba toured Morocco, Rwanda, Mozambique and Ethiopia as he sought to deepen the bilateral relations with the countries.
A week ago, Putin said he is looking forward to hosting African leaders for the second Russia-Africa summit to be held at St Petersburg in July. The first conference was held in 2019.