African heads of state and government are gathering in Moscow for the third Russia-Africa Summit, with the Kremlin expecting delegations from 48 countries, including 22 led by heads of state, according to Al Jazeera. The meeting follows a first summit in Sochi in 2019 that drew 43 African leaders and a second in St Petersburg in 2023 that drew only 17, after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Al Jazeera reports that Moscow's economic offer to the continent remains modest compared with those of other major partners, and that analysts see political calculations as the main driver behind attendance.
Why it matters
The summit is a test of how much influence Moscow retains in Africa at a time when it is under Western sanctions and fighting a war in Ukraine. According to Al Jazeera, Russia's trade with Africa stood at about $28bn in 2025. China's trade with the continent was $348bn, and the European Union exchanged nearly 355 billion euros ($395bn) in goods with Africa in 2024.
Beverly Ochieng, a Dakar-based analyst quoted by Al Jazeera, said the economic reasons for attending the summit are "much more limited" than for comparable gatherings hosted by the United States or China, which she said come with larger investment pledges. In her view, political motives are the primary reason countries are sending delegations to Moscow.
Security ties and the legacy of Soviet training
For the military governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, Al Jazeera reports, Russia offers something more immediate than investment: support for staying in power. France was pushed out of those countries and Russia moved in. Armed groups continue to attack, and Human Rights Watch has accused Africa Corps forces in Mali of killing civilians and torturing detainees.
The paramilitary Wagner Group, which once operated across the Sahel, has been replaced there by Africa Corps, a force controlled by Russia's Ministry of Defence, according to the report. Moscow is also fighting a war in Ukraine in which Africans have been recruited, some under false pretences. Al Jazeera cites an investigation by Journalists for Justice that documented 502 African deaths by June 2026.
The report also carries the account of Mama Regina, a mother in Douala, Cameroon, whose son Moses travelled to Russia to fight and whose family is waiting for his body. Al Jazeera's correspondent describes some grieving families turning to a small Russian Orthodox church whose Cameroonian pastor was trained in St Petersburg.
Ochieng noted that the Soviet Union trained generations of African officers, politicians and students during decolonisation, and that Moscow can still draw on the argument that it did not colonise the continent. Al Jazeera's correspondent, who interviewed Wagner fighters at Berengo Palace outside Bangui in 2019, writes that the men spoke first about the country they had left rather than the one they had come to defend.
Mining, uranium and the limits of loyalty
Economic ties are expanding in specific sectors. In Mali, construction has begun on a gold refinery backed by Russia's Yadran Group, with the Malian state holding a 62-percent stake, Al Jazeera reports. In Guinea, the Russian aluminium producer Rusal runs bauxite mines and an alumina plant. In Niger, subsidiaries of the state nuclear company Rosatom are discussing uranium projects with the government after the takeover of a mine previously run by France's Orano, while a separate attempt to sell existing uranium stockpiles remains in dispute.
President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that Russia's aim was not to take anything from Africa but to develop together, according to the report.
Sergey Eledinov, a former Russian officer and security analyst quoted by Al Jazeera, argued that Russia's military bargains in Africa carry a risk. By helping governments stay in power, Moscow may leave them free to pursue other partners. "Survival doesn't create loyalty," he said. "It creates options."
Ochieng also warned against reading Russian flags at demonstrations as evidence of broad public support, saying they do not mean that Africans are simply pro-Russia. For Moscow, she said, the summit is an opportunity to show that it remains politically relevant even as the West increasingly treats it as a pariah state.
In 2023, Putin offered free grain to six African countries, and Russia later delivered it, Al Jazeera reports.
What to watch: whether the summit produces concrete commitments beyond the grain deliveries of 2023, and how the attendance list compares with the 43 leaders who came to Sochi in 2019.
