From September 15 till October 5, 2008 Anastasia A. Banshchikova, Dmitri M. Bondarenko, Ekaterina B. Demintseva, Tatiana V. Evgenyeva, Oleg I. Kavykin, and Secretary of the Academic Council for African Problems Anatoly Savateev conducted field research in the Republic of Benin on the Image of Russia in Africa. The expedition was designed as a further elaboration of the research project launched in 2006, within which field research in Nigeria in 2006 and Tanzania in 2007 were conducted.