Russia’s return to Africa in a historical and global context: Anti-imperialism, patronage, and opportunism

ABSTRACT This article contextualises Russia’s involvement in Africa through the lenses of the Soviet past, current rulership architecture in Russia, and its recent operations abroad. Russia deploys normative justifications like anti-colonialism to justify its involvement in Africa. Russian agents in Africa are drawn from vast political-oligarchic patronage networks, making these agents perfectly suited to operate in patronage-political contexts that are widely observed across Africa. The diffusion of Russian power projection is therefore likely a strength and not a weakness. The article further shows that Russian activities during the 2010s have predominantly been driven by opportunism as opposed to an attempt to turn Africa into a theatre of competition with the US and NATO, yet it seems that more strategic guidance is likely in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resultant increase in tensions with the West.