On 20 January 2026, the Russian Ambassador to Bangladesh Aleksandr Khozin met the Chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Tarique Rahman to discuss the strengthening of bilateral ties and wished the BNP a successful electoral campaign.

On 19 January, the Uralchem Group, one of the largest producers of fertilizer in Russia, gifted 30,000 tonnes of potash to Bangladesh under the framework of the World Food Programme (WFP). On 16 January, Bangladeshi Adviser for Finance and Science and Technology Salehuddin Ahmed declared that approximately 350 MW of electricity produced at the Russian-financed Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) would be added to the national grid. On 15 January, Bangladeshi Ambassador to Russia Md. Nazrul Islam presented his credentials to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow. These seemingly disconnected incidents demonstrate an important pattern: the partnership between Bangladesh and Russia has largely continued after the change of government in Bangladesh on 5 August 2024.

Between January 2009 and August 2024, the government of Bangladesh, led by the Awami League, pursued close relations with Russia, demonstrated through the acquisition of Russian military equipment, the construction of the Russian-financed Rooppur NPP, the steady increase in bilateral trade, the arrival of Russian Navy vessels to Chattogram, occasional Bangladeshi abstention from voting on anti-Russian resolutions at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), and the refusal to condemn the Russian actions in Ukraine. Growing Russo–Bangladeshi relations, along with several other factors, had contributed to the deterioration in relations between Bangladesh and the United States (US). However, it should be noted that the partnership between Dhaka and Moscow, while being extensive, did not amount to an alliance, as illustrated by the Russian refusal to condemn the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas by Myanmar, repeated expressions of Bangladesh’s support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity, and Dhaka’s tacit compliance with Western sanctions on Russia.

While Russia officially refrained from commenting on the fall of the previous government........

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