Russia’s renewed engagement with Africa has expanded rapidly since 2022, as Moscow seeks to counterbalance its growing international isolation. Drawing on trade and UN voting data, this brief finds that while Russia has intensified relations with a handful of African states, the overall involvement remains limited in scope and depth. Economic ties are concentrated in fragile and politically isolated countries, while indicators of political alignment, such as UN General Assembly voting, suggest declining rather than increasing support. Russia’s new strategy may yield short-term geopolitical leverage but shows little sign of delivering durable economic or political gains.

Key points from the policy brief the FREE Network Policy Brief

• Russia–Africa trade has grown since 2022, but it is still modest overall and concentrated in a handful of countries rather than becoming a broad economic partnership.
• Russia’s diplomacy and security cooperation tend to cluster around politically isolated or fragile states, suggesting a transactional strategy built on short-term leverage (arms, security deals, elite ties) rather than long-term development investment.
• Even with more outreach, UN voting data suggest African alignment with Russia has declined to the lowest level since the 1970s, meaning visibility and activity are not translating into continent-wide political loyalty.

Meet the authors

• Maria Perrotta Berlin, Assistant Professor, Stockholm Institute for Transition Economics (SITE); Stockholm School of Economics
• Lev Lvovskiy, Academic Director, Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center (BEROC)

The cover photo was generated by an AI system via Shutterstock.