Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are partnering with Russia to develop the Sahel’s first shared telecommunications satellite, aiming to boost digital connectivity, security and regional economic integration. [Getty Images]
Energy agreements with Mali and a deepening security embrace of the Sahel are expected to take centre stage when Russia hosts its third major Africa summit in October, as President Vladimir Putin presses ahead with an ambitious campaign to redraw Moscow’s relationships across a continent where the West is losing ground.
Russian Energy Minister Sergey Tsivilev signalled the direction of travel after talks on the sidelines of the Kazan Forum — an annual diplomatic and economic gathering in Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan — confirming that Moscow and Bamako were working to finalise “major cooperation agreements” in time for the summit. The forum, which brings together representatives from across the Global South, has become a key staging ground for Russian diplomacy beyond Europe.
Although Kremlin officials have yet to announce a firm date for the October gathering, preparations are already in motion. A package of cooperation deals is being assembled that Russian officials say will significantly reshape Moscow’s partnerships with African governments, with Mali — which has made one of the most dramatic breaks from Western influence of any country in recent memory — at the forefront.
The summit will be the third in a series Putin launched in 2019 in Sochi, where he co-hosted the inaugural event alongside Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, then chair of the African Union. That gathering delivered dozens of agreements spanning defence, mining, infrastructure and energy. A planned 2020 follow-up was abandoned amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but Russia revived the format in 2023 in St Petersburg. Despite concerted Western pressure to isolate Moscow over its war in Ukraine, officials reported that representatives from 49 African countries attended, among them 17 heads of state — a show of engagement that undercut the narrative of Russian diplomatic isolation.
The Kremlin has worked hard to cultivate that attendance. Central to its appeal is an anti-colonial message that Moscow has refined and amplified over years of African outreach, positioning Russia as a partner unburdened by a colonial past — a pointed contrast, it implies, to the European powers whose historical record on the continent remains deeply contested. In francophone West Africa especially, where resentment of French influence has been building for years, that framing has proven effective.
The consequences have been tangible. Military juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have each expelled French forces, dismantled longstanding security arrangements with Western governments and pivoted towards Moscow. Russia has filled the space left behind with military advisers, training programmes and armed personnel — forces that operated under the Wagner private military company banner until Wagner’s formal absorption into Russia’s Ministry of Defence, after which Moscow continued the deployments under direct state control.
The pitch Russia is making to Africa is not purely military. Beyond security partnerships, Moscow is pushing for economic integration built around energy cooperation, local-currency trade and alternative payment mechanisms explicitly designed to reduce African governments’ exposure to Western-dominated financial systems. Since 2023, Russia has also stepped up exports of grain, fertilisers and fuel products to African markets, offering itself as a reliable supplier at a time when global commodity prices have been volatile.
Russia’s overall trade volumes with Africa remain a fraction of those commanded by China or the European Union, and analysts note that Moscow’s influence is concentrated in a handful of fragile, conflict-affected states rather than distributed broadly across the continent. But in the Sahel — where state authority is weakest, armed groups most active and disenchantment with Western partners most acute — Russia has built a presence that few would have predicted possible a decade ago.
October’s summit, whenever its exact date is confirmed, is Moscow’s next opportunity to consolidate that presence and demonstrate to an audience of African leaders that, whatever its standing in the West, Russia remains very much open for business on the continent.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah