At the inaugural Russia-Africa summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in 2019, Russian president Vladimir Putin promised to double trade with African states within five years as he sought to win new friends with offers of nuclear power plants and fighter jets.
Three years on, few of those promises have materialised and yet Russian influence on the continent is growing faster than at any point since the end of the cold war.
Russian trade with Africa in 2021, the most recent full-year figure available, was worth $15.6bn — a tenth of the continent’s trade with China and a quarter up on 2018, according to IMF data. However, Moscow remains the biggest exporter of arms to Africa and — through investments and trading relationships in goods from diamonds to citrus fruit — has become a useful partner for African states.