E. N. KORENDYASOV PhD in Economics Institute of Africa, Russian Academy of Sciences Keywords: Russia, Africa, cooperation, investment, foreign trade, business, loans, natural resources The African vector is gaining an increasingly significant place in Russia's foreign policy strategy. It is known that the collapse of the Soviet Union and the "troubled times" of the 1990s caused significant damage to Russia's position and prestige in Africa. On the continent, 9 embassies, 4 consulates, most cultural centers, and trade missions were closed. The African air lines were abolished. Moscow has lost important tools for exerting influence and creating new forms of cooperation. In the eyes of the Moscow political establishment and the business community, the prevailing view is that Africa is a continent stuck in pre-industrial stages of development, a continent of insurmountable poverty, endless wars and epidemics, surviving only thanks to international aid. Meanwhile, there was and still is another Africa-Africa of rapid economic growth (5% or more per year for the last 20 years), a major player in the natural and labor markets, a key source of global demand growth, and a lucrative area of investment operations. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, rising economies loudly declared themselves and their ambitions. They put forward and began to promote a program for the formation of a world order based on fair consideration of the interests of all countries and all regions. The most important point of the new players ' program was the requirement to build a multipolar, polycentric system of international relations, a new financial and economic architecture. Under the banner of this program, a kind of coalition of Asian, African and Latin American states is emerging, the prototype of which can be seen in the BRICS association (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), based on the principles of multipolarity, openness, non-alignment, and solidarity for development. Rus ... Read more