Museveni, Russian ambassador meet

President Yoweri Museveni has met with the Russian Ambassador to Uganda, Vladlen Semivolos, State House has said.

"We discussed issues of mutual interest," Museveni tweeted on Thursday afternoon.

However, State House didn't divulge much about the meeting but it is said issues of "mutual interest" were discussed by the two principals.

The development comes a few hours after Uganda together with 34 other countries abstained from  participating in  a voting process that sought to condemn Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations.

In an emergency session of the UN’s general assembly, 141 of the 193 member states voted for the resolution to condemn Russia, whereas five voted against the resolution.

Uganda’s position has remained neutral ever since the invasion.

President Museveni has not expressed himself on the matter and neither has the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially done so.

Uganda is a great beneficiary of Russia’s support, so are the many other African states who have been caught in the middle of the crossfire between the West and the Balkan states.

The relations between Uganda and Russia have in the past years blossomed as the East African country's allegiance  is seen by many as moving from the West towards Russia and China.

In 2019, President Museveni was among the few African leaders who were invited for the first-ever Russia-Africa summit in the Russian Coastal city of Sochi.

Speaking at the sidelines of the summit, Museveni hailed Russia for always supporting the development of Uganda in terms of defence and security and Africa at large.

“Russia and Uganda are cooperating very well in the areas of defence and security by buying good quality Russian equipment including aircraft,” Museveni said.

He told Putin that ties between the two countries started way back during Africa’s fight for independence when Russia and China supported Africans in their fight for freedom.

According to Museveni, the relationship has grown through the years and noted that the Russia- China summit was long overdue.

“It will strengthen trade and bilateral relations between Africa and Russia. We are working on building workshops for maintenance and overhaul of equipment we get from Russia, like the aircraft which will greatly reduce costs,” Museveni said.

In response, Putin told Museveni that he sees possibilities for cooperation between Russia and Uganda along the trajectories of construction and cyber security, as well as on other tracks.

“We also see possibilities for cooperation in the field of construction, development of information technologies and cybersecurity, agriculture, medicine and pharmaceutics, telecommunications, operation and servicing of helicopters, as well as ecology,” Putin said.