Neo-colonialism is back as a hot button issue and has been very effectively used by the Kremlin to undermine the West’s influence in Africa while binding these countries more closely to Russia’s expanding influence in the Global South.
A Russian-drafted resolution equating unilateral economic sanctions to modern colonialism cleared a UN General Assembly committee by 85 votes to 49, with 23 abstentions, on October 15. Notably most of Africa voted with Russia while most of the Global North voted against the motion.
The Fourth Committee voting board for draft A/C.4/81/L.5 on October 15: 85 in favour (green), 49 against (red), 23 abstentions (yellow). Source: UN
The General Assembly's Fourth Committee, which handles special political and decolonisation questions, approved draft A/C.4/81/L.5, "Addressing contemporary forms of colonialism", in a recorded vote, according to the UN's own meetings coverage. It was one of more than 20 drafts the committee approved that day. A committee vote is not final: the text now goes to the full General Assembly for adoption in plenary.
The vote is the latest test of Moscow's campaign to recast Western sanctions as colonialism and part of Putin’s big bet on the Global South Century. Every member of BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the UAE - voted in favour, the voting board shows, while the US, the UK, Japan, Israel, Ukraine and all 27 EU member states voted against. Brazil and Russia had already rejected unilateral coercive measures as unlawful in a joint statement signed in Brasilia in February, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov used last year's General Assembly session to network with dozens of global south delegations. Sanctions sit at the heart of the economic war between Russia and the West.
Russia has been held the Russia-African summit twice in Russia and colonialism has been a major theme at both. Russia’s claim to fame is the Soviet Union was a rare western power that did not follow a colonial policy and during the Cold War the communists usually backed the domestic independent movements, something many African countries remain grateful until this day.
At the same time, as IntelliNews reported, the Western “globalisation” model has until recently been a polite neologism for an updated neo-colonialism model: up to 80% of its manufacturing is exported to low-wage emerging markets – exactly the problem that US President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs was trying to tackle - exporting the human capital wealth of poor market back to Western markets in the form of cheap iPhones and other goods, according to one study.
Under the text, the UN Assembly would recognise that "colonialism persists in contemporary forms and practices in relations among States, and may be expressed through resort to unilateral economic, financial or trade measures not in accordance with international law and the Charter", the UN said in its summary of the draft. The text also lists the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, interference in states' internal affairs and restrictions on access to markets and services.
Moscow tables, Washington pushes back
Russia's representative introduced the draft on behalf of the Group of Friends in Defence of the Charter of the United Nations, a bloc formed in July 2021 that includes China, Cuba and Iran. He said the text offered a positive alternative by encouraging stronger international co-operation to reduce structural inequality, according to the UN. When the committee opened its general debate on October 1, the Russian delegate said "modern-day colonialism is seen, among other things, through unilateral coercive measures", and announced the group would table a new resolution on the issue, the UN's coverage of that meeting shows.
The US representative told the committee that sanctions, export controls and sovereign trade decisions are lawful tools of statecraft and that every nation has the right to choose its trading partners and respond to threats, according to the UN summary. She also said Havana had for years used Venezuela's oil wealth to prop up its failed economy, and that the US had arrested Venezuela's dictator - a reference to the seizure of Nicolas Maduro, whose release Moscow has demanded.
"We are not surprised by the position taken by the Government of the United States, the main promoter of unilateral coercive measures and economic blockades," Cuba's delegate replied.
Ukraine called the draft "another attempt by Russia to present itself as a champion of decolonization" while Moscow pursues neocolonial policies of its own, and said sanctions are a legitimate response to Russia's aggression. Liechtenstein, speaking also for Iceland and Norway, said implementing the principles behind the draft in full "would entail a significant policy shift by the drafter of this text". "Norway cannot accept a resolution presented by a state violating another state's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity," Norway's UN mission said in a statement on October 15.
How emerging markets voted
The board shows all five Central Asian states - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - voting in favour, along with Belarus. Georgia and Moldova voted against, as did Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia. Serbia abstained. Hungary and Slovakia, the EU members most reluctant on Russia sanctions, voted against with the rest of the bloc. No vote is recorded for Turkey, Armenia or Azerbaijan.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman voted in favour alongside the UAE, as did Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore. In Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Algeria and Ghana backed the text and Morocco abstained, while no vote is recorded for Nigeria or Kenya. South Korea and Mongolia abstained.
Latin America split. Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, Cuba and Nicaragua voted in favour, Ecuador voted against, and Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay and Panama abstained. Argentina gave no official explanation for its abstention, MercoPress reported on October 16, and drew criticism from Carlos Bianco, the government minister of Buenos Aires province, who said "the Malvinas Question deserves a diplomacy that is not on its knees".
The split is far sharper than on last year's Russian-backed text declaring December 14 the International Day against Colonialism in All Its Forms and Manifestations, which the General Assembly adopted on December 5, 2025 by 116 votes to two, with only the US and Israel against and 54 abstentions, according to the voting record. The UK and France, which abstained on that text, voted against this one.