On October 24, 2025, a working meeting was held at the Embassy of the Republic of Mali in the Russian Federation between I. N. Morozov, Chairman of AFROCOM, and General Seydou Kamissoko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Mali to the Russian Federation.
Mr. Kamissoko welcomed Mr. Morozov and expressed gratitude for AFROCOM’s activities on the African continent. He noted that Mali is currently actively cooperating with the Russian Federation on countering terrorism in Mali, and as a result, several agreements have been signed with various Russian entities.
However, according to the Ambassador, eradicating terrorism requires developing the country and fighting poverty. To this end, Mali has launched a national development programme in various sectors, including agriculture, renewable and green energy, and others. As the Ambassador stated, Mali has sunlight, wind, and natural resources. A number of Russian companies are currently being engaged to accomplish the set tasks, and the Ambassador would like to see AFROCOM among them.
In turn, Mr. Morozov thanked the Ambassador and spoke about AFROCOM’s activities on the continent. He explained that AFROCOM was established in 2002 on the instruction of Prime Minister Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. The first President of AFROCOM was banker Mr. Dmitriev; afterwards, another bank prepared Mr. Fradkov became President, and the third President is Mr. Morozov himself.
AFROCOM is a business platform for attracting and supporting Russian goods and technologies on the African continent. Major Russian companies such as Rosneft and Gazprom Neft cooperate with AFROCOM. AFROCOM does not deal with humanitarian or social issues; it focuses exclusively on business.
AFROCOM has also developed a financial scheme to support transactions. For instance, a leasing scheme has been created jointly with Gazprombank for supplying agricultural machinery to Nigeria and Ethiopia, as well as equipment for mineral extraction in South Africa. AFROCOM is actively operating in Somalia and other countries. It has branches in more than 15 African countries.
Igor Nikolaevich told the Ambassador that he has already visited Mali twice for work and plans to go there again soon. Therefore, he decided to meet with the Ambassador to inform him.
Igor Nikolaevich spoke about how, together with other senators, he was at the origins of the reforms that shaped modern Russia under the leadership of V. V. Putin.
Various platforms were created for this purpose, such as:
- Electronic Russia (providing all structures with office equipment);
- Digital Russia (solutions that allowed monitoring the work of all government structures in fulfilling the tasks set by the President);
- the Russian National Wealth Fund (where revenue from the sale of the country’s energy resources was accumulated).
All these platforms and funds enabled the implementation of nationwide projects and their effective management, thereby contributing to the country’s development.
Mr. Morozov proposed that the Republic of Mali should develop using Russia’s experience. To achieve this, it is necessary to:
- engage in automation and digitalization;
- establish a National Wealth Fund;
- ensure that the state exclusively manages mineral resources, with all proceeds from their sale going into this fund;
- finance national projects from this fund.
In turn, the Ambassador thanked Igor Nikolaevich and asked him to put his vision for the country’s development in writing, so that he could send this letter to the relevant institutions. The Ambassador also requested a visit to the country for on‑site discussions.