Russia as a partner of africa and the afro-eurasian strategy

Abstract

Despite Russia’s historical relations with Africa and the support provided by the USSR during the Cold War, the 1990s resulted in its retreat, overtaken by a pragmatic movement of Russian foreign policy, in a context of profound international changes throughout the 2000s. The growing interaction with African countries at different levels is part of the strategy to build a new world architecture from a broad vision of reordering the international economic order and the international political order. To this end, the political and economic stabilization of Africa is a basic element for Russia’s position in a multipolar order. It is understood that the main problem to be faced by the Russian State concerns the need to reclaim a strategic space of its own. Although relations with its surroundings are crucial, as they reveal the possibility of substantially reducing the ability of another power to influence the heart of Eurasia, the Russians have expanded their spectrum of international action in a strategic perspective. As a theoretical foundation that permeates the analysis, it is considered that the crisis and changes in the International System and Order with the end of the Cold War, as well as the recovery of Russia’s power resources, established a new correlation of forces. Africa is a strategic space for Russia’s return to the great world diplomacy. Regarding the methodological references, the approach is qualitative. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to evaluate the importance of Africa in the Russian Grand Strategy in its Afro-Eurasian dimension.

Key-words
Russia; Africa; Cooperation; Strategy; Foreign Policy.