G. M. SIDOROVA Candidate of Historical Sciences Key words: Russia, Africa, peacemaking, conflicts, piracy, African Union The beginning of the new millennium was not much different from previous years. Military operations were conducted between Ethiopia and Eritrea, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in the Central African Republic (CAR), Niger, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Chad, and Madagascar. Especially problematic was the central region of Africa, which was immersed in a protracted military conflict. Its epicenter was the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where an unprecedented tragedy took place since the collapse of the colonial system. It is not easy to put an end to conflicts and return them to the legal framework of the UN Charter, based on the main principles and norms of international law. Nevertheless, the preventive potential of the international community has been fully identified. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in his congratulatory message to African countries on the occasion of Africa Day in 2010, stated that Russia, for its part, stands for increasing the effectiveness of international assistance to Africa, and stressed: "We will continue to make efforts in this direction."1 After a forced pause in solving internal problems, Russia is returning to Africa as an active participant in unblocking conflict situations. By the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, there was an intensification of bilateral contacts between our country and a number of African States and regional organizations. The visits of Russian state and political leaders to South Africa and Morocco in 2006, Mikhail Fradkov to Angola, Namibia and South Africa in 2007, Sergey Lavrov to Angola and Ethiopia in the same year, and Dmitry Medvedev to the United States have significantly helped to restructure our relations with African countries. - to Egypt, Nigeria, and Namibia in 2009; Dmitry Medvedev - to Algeria in 2010 and Sergey Lavrov - to Kenya and Nigeria at the end of the ... Read more