Vladimir Putin told African leaders in Moscow that a multipolar world was "truly becoming a reality", pitching Russia as their partner against a West he accused of neo-colonialism.

Putin was opening the plenary session of the third Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum on October 28, a day before the leaders' summit, according to the Kremlin transcript. Delegations from 48 African countries, 22 of them at head-of-state level, have confirmed they will attend, Vedomosti reported.

BRICS countries have accounted for more than 40% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity over the past five years and the G7 for less than 30%, Putin said, and BRICS' share "will only grow further - to the benefit of developing countries". Africa, with its natural resources, its demographics and its position on transcontinental trade routes, deserves much of the credit, he added.

The speech set out the logic of Putin's big bet on the Global South Century. Cut off from Western markets by the war in Ukraine and sanctions, Moscow is building new markets and partners among emerging economies, and Russia in Africa is a large part of that turn. Its pitch to the continent is that the West has spent decades bleeding the Global South of its wealth, while Russia presents itself as offering a partnership between equals.

Russia's own share of Africa's foreign economic interaction - trade, debt, investment, aid and remittances - is still only 0.5%, against 28.5% for Europe and 16.4% for the BRICS countries, according to Vedomosti calculations published on October 27.

Building a multipolar world meets resistance from countries "accustomed to thinking in colonial terms and becoming fabulously - yes, fabulously - rich at the expense of others", Putin said. Such countries resort to "tariff wars, illegitimate sanctions, economic dictate, blackmail and interference in the internal affairs of others", he said.

"Western countries are making aggressive attempts to drive Africans back into financial bondage, imposing on them the financial resources they so desperately need on extortionate terms, which force them to pay back many times over to service and repay such debts, to the detriment of their long-term development plans," he said.

He quoted Thomas Sankara, the first president of Burkina Faso, who called debt "a skilfully managed reconquest of Africa" in 1987, and said little had changed since. Value added in African manufacturing is less than 2% by expert estimates, and only 15% of the continent's $1.5 trillion of annual trade is conducted within Africa, Putin said.

Russia runs programmes with several African countries that turn debt into funding for national growth projects, and wants Africa to have a bigger say in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, both of which need to be reformed to serve developing economies, he said.

Africa is "rightly called the continent of the future", Putin said. The centre of global population growth will shift to Africa from 2030 and the continent's population will pass 2.5bn by 2050, about 70% of them under 30, according to UN forecasts he cited. The African Development Bank puts average growth on the continent at 4.2%, above the world average, and 12 of the 20 fastest-growing economies are African.

Students, not raw materials

Russian business in Africa "does not engage in the predatory, neo-colonial exploitation of natural and human resources" but processes raw materials on the spot, creating jobs and tax revenues, Putin said.

The number of African students in Russia has risen 1.5 times since 2020 to a record of about 40,000, and Russian government scholarships for Africa have nearly tripled, with the quota raised to 5,500 places for the 2026-2027 academic year, Putin said.

A programme launched this year pays African students' travel, accommodation, food and tuition in Russia, and 58 Russian open-education centres teaching Russian and basic subjects now operate in 29 African countries, he said. More than 200 civil servants from 20 African countries have been through a Russian training programme in digital government.

Trade to double

Russia-Africa trade exceeded $27bn last year, up from $18bn in 2022, Putin said, adding that this was "not enough". Customs data show that trade fell 2.4% in 2025, with Russian exports making up most of it.

"I am convinced that in the very near future we can increase this figure further, at least twofold, and certainly pass the $50bn mark," he said, according to the Russian transcript.

Russia is one of the most reliable guarantors of food security on the continent and more than 40 African countries already receive Russian fertiliser and grain, Putin said. Russia exported 13mn tonnes of agricultural products to Africa in 9M26, and shipments to some countries have grown "not by percentages, but several times over", he said.

The flows are under pressure after Russia and Ukraine started striking each other's grain ports, a food price shock that falls hardest on African importers. Russia is ready to deliver all contracted grain to Africa by other routes and already uses some, including the Baltic, Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Borisenko told Interfax on October 28.

Imports of African agricultural produce reached about $4bn this year, covering 8% of Russia's import needs. "But 8% is not that much. So what does that tell us? That the figure certainly must and will grow," Putin said. Russia is offering seeds, fertiliser, farm machinery, storage and processing, and plans agricultural and machinery hubs with some African countries, he said.

Payments, technology, water

Putin called for more trade settled in national currencies, more correspondent links between Russian and African banks, and a switch to the Bank of Russia's financial messaging system and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System. That would protect payments from "politicised interference by unfriendly countries", he said, in line with the wider BRICS Pay push to trade outside the dollar system. "Some countries simply do not have their own financial systems but are tied to European financial systems. Of course, that limits sovereignty," he said.

"We have been at the forefront in the global race to achieve technological sovereignty," Putin said, adding that Russia has two domestic large language models and that "our competitors have to catch up with us in some sectors". Russia is willing to share its high-tech and digital know-how with Africa, he said, and presented a "sovereign development platform" for African states at an exhibition after the session.

Russia will localise production of Russian medicines and vaccines in Africa and set up laboratories and diagnostic centres, Putin said. Russia's consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has supplied 15 mobile laboratories to eight African countries and trained about 450 specialists under a programme now extended to 2029.

Russia is also offering water management, irrigation and hydropower, a priority after the African Union made sustainable access to clean water its goal for this year. Hydropower generator RusHydro (MOEX: HYDR) is ready to design new plants, modernise existing ones and build modular generation for remote areas, Putin said, recalling the 55th anniversary of the Soviet-built Aswan High Dam in Egypt.

More than 30 energy projects are under way jointly in 16 African countries, Putin said, and he invited African airlines to start flying to Russia.

Leaders are due to adopt an action plan for the Russia-Africa partnership for 2027-2029 at the summit on October 29.

Jets, reactors and fertiliser

Ethiopia took delivery of its first 12 Su-35 fighter jets a year ahead of schedule and will receive four S-400 air defence batteries, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on X on October 28. State arms exporter Rosoboronexport confirmed the jet delivery, and its chief executive Alexander Mikheyev told the Vesti TV channel that African countries account for more than 30% of its order book.

State nuclear corporation Rosatom has legally binding agreements with 29 of Africa's 54 countries and is in active talks with 40-42, chief executive Alexei Likhachev told reporters, TASS reported. Rosatom is in advanced talks to supply 100 MW floating nuclear plants to Egypt, Togo, Namibia and Tanzania, Reuters reported.

Reactor sales lock buyers into decades of Russian fuel and servicing - uranium is the new gas in Moscow's dealings with emerging markets - and Russia's nuclear exports are booming.

Fertiliser producer PhosAgro (MOEX: PHOR) delivered more than 1.3mn tonnes to Africa in 9M26, already above its 2025 total of nearly 1mn tonnes, and aims to double its 2025 volume this year, First Deputy CEO Sergei Pronin told TASS. Russia could start with projects worth several billion dollars in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told TASS on the sidelines of the forum.

Burundi's President Evariste Ndayishimiye, who chairs the African Union, told the same session that Africa wants to process its resources at home and did not want to serve only as a source of raw materials.