Situation and value of the African continent on the economic and social cardmap of the world dynamically changes and will continue to change throughout all the 21st century with strengthening of the Africa positions in the world. In Russia all the complex of threats and problems which arise owing to political and economic transformation of Africa is not adequately estimated. The scientific literature on economic security issues presents an expanded set of internal and external threats to the national economy that goes beyond the traditional areas of the shadow economy, corruption, economic crime and related segments, including the internal economic stability of the national economy and inter-country competition, the quality of state strategic management, studies of the specifics of ensuring economic security in the conditions of the sixth technological order, intercultural communication and their impact on the economic relations between countries, etc. Incomplete use of such approach to strategy for the countries of Africa creates additional threats and risks for Russia. An analysis of security problems in Africa revealed that studies of economic security in the context of African development trends in Russia are conducted in an unsatisfactory volume, not always taking into account the results of new developments in the field of ensuring economic security. Even the large shifts happening on the African continent, forecasts of this dynamics sometimes are poorly known to experts of a profile of economic security, and many experts of an economic profile including working in the African subject often do not accurately distinguish problems of “economic cooperation” and “the Russian – African relations”, on the one hand, and “economic security of Russia” – with another. In this regard the new scientific problem is proved: need for deeper analysis of trends of economic and social development in Africa as an important component of a system of ensuring national economic security of Russia in the current period and in the future into account the new developments in the sphere of economic security. The main directions of activating scientific research and concentration of practical efforts to increase national economic security, neutralize threats and reduce risk for Russia in the designated context are formulated.