Russian President Vladimir Putin will host dozens of African leaders in Moscow as the Kremlin seeks to deepen ties with a continent that has taken on greater strategic importance for Russia since its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Delegations from 48 countries including 22 represented by heads of state are expected to attend the third Russia-Africa summit that opens Wednesday, according to state media. Putin plans a series of bilateral meetings with visiting leaders and will take part in the summit’s plenary session on Thursday, the Kremlin said.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Kenyan President William Ruto and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed are among the leaders due in Moscow. Burundi’s President Evariste Ndayishimiye, the current African Union chairman, will co-chair the summit.
The Kremlin said participants plan to adopt a joint declaration and a separate communique on artificial intelligence, while a number of other agreements will also be signed.
For Putin, the gathering is another opportunity to demonstrate the limits of Western efforts to isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine, while also attempting to rebuild influence in Africa that declined sharply after the Soviet Union’s collapse. Moscow’s gains have been most visible in diplomacy and security, while the trade relationship remains modest and heavily concentrated in a handful of countries.
The summit is taking place as several African governments have complained about efforts to recruit their citizens to join Russia’s war in Ukraine, a potential source of friction at the talks in Moscow.
“Africans are well aware of Russia’s relatively modest position on the continent and of the much stronger presence of China, the West and even India,” said Alexander Baunov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “For African countries, ties with Russia are a way of somewhat balancing that much larger presence.”
Russia has made some of its most obvious advances in the restive Sahel region, providing military support to governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. It has also maintained a military presence in the Central African Republic.
Moscow remains a top arms supplier to Africa, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, though its position has weakened as arms deliveries to Algeria, historically one of Russia’s largest customers, have dropped sharply in recent years.
Russia is also attempting to restore diplomatic and cultural infrastructure that was dismantled after the Soviet collapse, reopening embassies and expanding scholarships, university partnerships and training programs. It has resumed missions in Burkina Faso, Niger, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone and Togo in recent years. Russia also established its first embassies in South Sudan, the Gambia and Comoros, and plans another in Liberia, according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
Putin’s daughter, Katerina Tikhonova, is also involved in Russia’s Africa push through her Innopraktika foundation, which alongside state-owned lender Promsvyazbank announced a permanent Russia-Africa organization designed to help Russian companies on the continent.
In March, Innopraktika took part in launching a Russian technology hub in Dar es Salaam that aims to turn Tanzania into an entry point into the East African market for Russian technology companies.
Russia’s economic footprint remains much smaller than its political one, underscoring that the predominantly geopolitical nature of the Kremlin’s interest in Africa.
“Seventy percent of this trade is concentrated in seven or eight countries,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview last year. “Diversification is needed here.”
Lavrov said in June that trade with Africa was approaching $30 billion a year. That’s less than Russia’s annual total with neighboring Belarus, a nation of fewer than 10 million people, and a fraction of the almost €355 billion ($396 billion) in goods exchanged between the European Union and Africa in 2024, according to European Council data.
There have been pockets of rapid growth. Trade with Ghana increased to more than $800 million in 2024 from $247 million in 2022, according to the Russian embassy in Ghana.
Russian exporters are reluctant to make significant investments because of a shortage of prepared projects and reliable information on costs, markets, regulations and risks, according to a report published by the Center for Africa Studies at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, which advises the government on regional policies.
“Over the years, it has become clear that Russia’s verbal support and anti-imperialist rhetoric translate very poorly into actual financial resources,” said Baunov. “One should not mistake an interest in Russia — or attendance at its events — for unconditional support for Russia.”
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