Regime Change

President Isaias was in Moscow for the Russia-Africa Summit. In an interview with Sputnik, he made it abundantly clear he was “not coming from the vantage point of Eritrea and Eritrean interests because it has nothing to do with the reality on the ground.” One is at a loss what to make of such a statement coming, as it does, from a leader of an impoverished nation that spends most of its meager resources more to bankroll destabilizing campaigns throughout the region than in building badly needed clinics or schools. Far from pursuing bilateral relations that could perhaps help improve the plight of his people, he has made it perfectly clear he is more interested in ‘righting the wrongs’ in the global financial system including addressing the containment policy against Russia than in taking care of bread and butter issues of the people of Eritrea. In light of President Isaias’ proclivities to punching above his weight, such grandstanding is not entirely out of character. What’s so striking about his remarks in Moscow, however, his dismissal of the relevance of individual countries’ cases including that of Eritrea as agenda in the summit in Moscow called exactly to address Russia’s relations with African countries. Many on social media were commenting on President Isaias’ dejected look, with his hands loosely hanging by his waist, and looking confused and out of place. Indeed, for a casual observer, the Eritrean president cut a sad figure throughout the summit and appeared to have difficulty fitting in the hustle bustle in Moscow. But that’s beside the point. The bottomline is President Isaias didn’t hold any bilats, didn’t address the gathering nor proffer his unsolicited views on global order to the Summit. He was just too bored to broach such silly subjects as Russo-Eritrean relations or Russo-African relations. If anything, this is yet another admission by the Eritrean President for life that when it comes to his priorities as a leader it is the unfairness in the global order, not Eritrea’s national interest, that comes front and center. After all, Eritrea has always been too small a project for a president whose imperial overreach knows no boundaries.