Due to solidarity with both the United States and with the Soviet Union and with the allies of the two nations, Sudan declared neutrality and instead chose membership in the Non-Aligned Movement throughout the Cold War.

Diplomatic cooperation between the two countries dramatically got back on track during the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Vladimir Putin was elected the President, and then the Prime Minister of Russia, and along with Chinese leader Hu Jintao opposed UN Peacekeepers in Darfur.

[citation needed] During the 2008 attack on Omdurman and Khartoum, Justice and Equality Movement rebels from Darfur killed a Russian mercenary pilot by shooting his plane down when he tried to strafe them.

[7] In November 2017, President Omar al-Bashir credited Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War for saving Syria.

[11] In 2019, Sudan and Russia signed an agreement, which reportedly gives Russian Navy access to Sudanese ports.

In November 2020, Vladimir Putin announced that the Russian Navy would proceed with building a base capable of hosting 300 personnel and four warships on Sudan's Red Sea coast.

Sudan’s Chief of General Staff, Gen. Mohammed Othman al-Hussein stated, “We are negotiating a possible review to this deal, to ensure that our interests and our profits are taken into account.”[14] In February 2023, Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov met Sudanese officials in Khartoum, including the commander-in-chief of Sudanese Armed Forces Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, leader of Rapid Support Forces Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, and acting foreign minister Ali Al-Sadiq Ali to improve relations amid the International sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War,[15] and to conclude a review of an agreement to build a naval base with up to 300 Russian troops in Port Sudan, awaiting ratification from yet-to-be-formed legislative body in Sudan.