African peacemaking and Russia

The article addresses the problem of the development of peacekeeping capacity in Africa and possibilities of expansion of Russian participation in this process. The author points to the opportunities and constraints in building up peacemaking architecture of African Union and its key element African Standby Forces (ASF). Regional African Organizations are playing major role in development of ASF. Current achievements in this process are very different in different regions, but main common problems are the same. Among them is luck of finance, experience and military equipment. The article shows current stage of foreign assistance for development of African peacekeeping capacities with huge dominance of Western countries involvement and relatively small and even decreasing of Russian participations. The author considers different options of rising up Russian assistance to create reliable mechanisms to prevent conflict situations in Africa, showing that Russian participation would be determined not only on financial support, but on more of an advisory and military technology. The designated areas of cooperation, in addition to strengthening Russian political influence on the Continent, could provide us certain economic dividends, for example, through the leasing of Russian military equipment to use in African peacekeeping contingents.