Is Russia A Better Partner For Africa Than The “Colonial” West?

President Vladimir Putin told African leaders in Moscow on Wednesday that Russia is the continent’s best partner, accusing what he described as a colonial West of still exploiting African resources and using debt to stall development.

President Putin was speaking at the opening plenary of the third Russia-Africa Summit, a two-day meeting in the Russian capital attended by government delegations from 48 countries, including 22 heads of state and government. He is scheduled to hold one-on-one talks with many of those leaders on trade, security, arms supplies and grain.

“Africa is increasingly asserting itself as one of the key players in the global economy and politics,” Mr Putin said. “However, the emergence of a multipolar world is, of course, no easy task; it faces resistance from countries that are not prepared to accept this reality: those who are accustomed to thinking in terms of their colonial past and to enriching themselves fabulously.”

He did not name the countries he meant, but accused Western states of “active attempts” to drive African countries back into debt bondage and to impose predatory terms on finance they urgently need — terms he said slow long-term development. Western critics counter that Mr Putin is leveraging Africa’s colonial history for Moscow’s own strategic benefit.

What Russia is offering

Putin said Russia was ready to share its know-how, including in digital technology, and to localise production inside Africa rather than simply buy raw materials — creating jobs and tax revenue. He also said Moscow supported greater African influence at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, was prepared to start joint transport and agricultural infrastructure projects, and stood ready to supply grain and fertiliser to more African countries.

The harder edge of the relationship

The summit, first held in 2019, anchors a sustained Russian push for political, economic and military influence on a continent where paramilitary fighters from Russia’s Africa Corps remain active.

Western governments have accused those forces of propping up military juntas such as Mali’s, consolidating Moscow’s geopolitical position and squeezing out former colonial powers like France. Moscow rejects those accusations. Russian state media and cultural institutions are also widening their presence, while state-linked companies move into mining and power generation.

African voices in the room

Burkina Faso’s Prime Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo said cooperation with Russia was transparent and served both parties’ interests, and that Moscow was not trying to erase African languages and cultures. “This is completely different from what we had with imperialist France,” he told Russia’s state broadcaster RT.

Why it matters now

Courting Africa and the wider Global South has become central to Moscow’s strategy of offsetting Western pressure over its war in Ukraine. Coverage by the AP, France 24 and Japan Times notes Africa’s rising strategic value to Russia since 2022, while Deutsche Welle frames the summit as a test of what Moscow’s declared “historic return” to the continent has actually delivered.