More than 20 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union Russia returns to the stage of international development aid. In their study, Evgeniya Bakalova and Hans-Joachim Spanger present a detailed picture of the evolving field of Russian development policy and analyze its cooperative or competitive potential with regard to the Western-dominated international activities. While Russia’s emerging development cooperation faces multiple dilemmas and currently finds itself at a crossroads, the country’s postulated non-ideological approach might provide fruitful ground for a productive exchange between the ‘traditional’ donor community and the ‘new’ donor.