As the Kremlin deepens its area in Africa to cope with the impact of Western influence, Tiktok claims Russia has eliminated visa requirements for all African countries. However, this is misleading. Only six African countries enjoy visa-free entry into Russia, and since 2023, the important Moscow diplomats in Moscow have hinted that the latest news has not yet been announced on the status of the proposed visa-free program by all African countries.
“The West is in Pannik, Russia announces free visas for all African countries (sic).
The video’s voice-over shared over 11,000 times, claiming that “Africans will easily do business with Russia” and added that “they [Africans] Will find investment opportunities and even decide to live in Russia, which is different from the West, which makes it so difficult (So original text)”.
The dubbing refers to the “latest statement” by Moscow diplomat Oleg Ozerov, who said: “Russia has established visa-free arrangements with six African countries and is actively reaching similar agreements with other countries on the African continent.”
Ozerov was identified as the general ambassador of the Russian Foreign Ministry and head of the secretariat of the Russian-Africa Partnership Forum.
Screenshot showing misleading post, taken on March 21, 2025
One user wrote: “Nigerians, please don’t mess it up for us,” another user said: “It’s time to move to Russia.”
The account has over 54,000 followers and published a similar claim on March 25, 2025.
Screenshot of another misleading post from the same Tiktok account taken on March 25, 2025
Russia has been expanding its influence in Africa in recent years, providing security support to poor countries in the region and igniting anti-Western sentiment (archived here).
However, as of March 2025, an agreement was reached with only a few African countries entering Russia without a visa.
In progress
Using keyword search, AFP fact check cannot find the statement that the Russian government recently announced that it has entered all African countries without a visa.
According to the Russian Consular Information Portal, only six African countries (out of 54) have no visa entry (archived here).
The six countries are Namibia, South Africa, Mauritius, Cape Verde, Botswana and Seychelles.
While Namibians and South Africans can stay in Russia for three months without a visa, people from Mauritius and Cape Verde can stay for two months, while people from Botswana and Seychelles can stay for only one month.
The comments attributed by Ozerov in the video are correct, but he told Russian news agency Tass in September 2023 that Moscow is working to exempt all African countries from visa requirements (archive here).
“We have reached visa-free agreements with six countries and of course there are ongoing work with other states.”
He added that the speed of such an agreement is “a negotiating issue.”
There has been no update on the progress of the Russian government since Ozerov’s speech in 2023.
Ozerov’s role has also changed: he was the head of the secretariat of the Russian-African Partnership Forum until September 2024, and is now the Russian Ambassador to Moldova (archived here).
Meanwhile, in December 2023, the Russian Foreign Ministry added 11 new countries to the list of states where citizens can obtain a single electronic visa (archived here).
Three are African countries: Kenya, Eswatini and Zimbabwe.
The electronic visa allows citizens of these countries to stay for 16 days at one entry.
