"I think when direct flights are launched, the levels of tourism should get better […] We would also like to have tourists not only from China and Japan, but also from Russia," he said.
"I know that stereotypes about Africa in the West are negative," the deputy minister notes. "People think we live in the jungle, sleep in trees and eat wild animals. This is all not true, and we need to promote the real image – through films and advertising products. We are on the verge of doing this."
"We are asking ourselves: why is there no restaurant serving Russian cuisine in [Zimbabwe capital] Harare? But it should be opened not by a Zimbabwean, but by a Russian. Then it would be authentic. I would invest in such a project," he said, stressing that food is an important element of "soft power".
"The decision to erect a monument to the Soviet army in Zimbabwe is very logical, because Russia played a decisive role in the liberation of Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and many other countries. Therefore, it is impossible to talk about the liberation of Africa without mentioning Moscow's role in this," he outlines.
"We don't pay much attention to the Second World War in history lessons, but we tell children in the course of European history that the USSR lost a lot of people in this war, that it was the USSR that won the decisive victory, liberated Europe and reached Berlin. But in colonial times, history was taught differently, we were told that Britain won the war," the deputy minister says.