✊🏿 Being Black in Russia and "Russian by Values"

The world is used to talking about Russia through politics, sanctions, and geopolitics. But there is another topic that unexpectedly resonates with young people around the globe: what it means to be Black in Russia, and whether someone who looks nothing like the classic "white Slavic Russian" can truly become "Russian."

In this article, we explore what it is like to be Black in Russia, why people in Russia often talk less about race and more about values, and how the state is officially inviting foreigners who share its "traditional values" narrative.

One of the most interesting voices is a Black content creator known as TheAfroLev, who moved to Russia. In his video he compares the US, China, and Russia and delivers a message that disrupts the usual Western narrative.

Another layer of content comes from videos where Black creators unpack stereotypes about Russians. In one video, blogger Wisdom shares what he had heard before meeting Russians and what he actually saw.

But important caveats follow immediately:

The Soviet Union officially embraced anti‑racism and hosted African students as equal comrades in a shared socialist project. Many Afro‑Russians have roots in this period: children of mixed families where one parent was from the USSR and the other from an African country.

After the USSR collapsed, things changed dramatically: economic crisis fueled nationalist attitudes. In the 1990s and 2000s, there were documented attacks on people with "non‑Slavic appearance." Even today, Afro‑Russians describe casual racism: refusals of service, hostile stares, and occasional slurs.

Afro‑Russians may not face the same kind of historically rooted systemic racism that grew out of slavery and segregation in the US, but they do deal with a lot of "everyday racism" — from taxi refusals to intrusive comments on the street.

In 2022, Russia adopted a decree on "the fundamentals of state policy to preserve and strengthen traditional Russian spiritual and moral values." In 2024–2025, another layer was added: a decree on "humanitarian support for foreign citizens who share traditional Russian spiritual and moral values."

If we put everything together — the stories, the historical context, and the new state course — a new figure emerges: the "Black Russian by values." Someone who may have been born in Africa or the US, but speaks Russian and lives in Russian cities; shares the discourse around traditional family, patriotism, and a conservative outlook.

Some Afro‑Russians and Black immigrants already speak about themselves in exactly these terms — through identity, not just legal status:

The story of Black lives in Russia and the policy of "Russians by values" points to something important: in the 2020s, "Russianness" is slowly transforming from a purely ethnic label into an open project that more people can, at least in theory, join.

This does not erase the pain of those who have faced racism, nor the criticism of Russia's political system. But it does open up space to talk not only about fears, but also about possibilities: