Russia and South Africa are important regional powers and members of BRICS and G-20. Collaboration between the two countries contributes to the creation of the multipolar world order and strengthens Russia’s position in global governance. However, Russia’s trade partnership with South Africa is far below its potential. South Africa accounted for only 0.07% of Russia's total exports in 2016. The paper provides a brief overview of Russia and South Africa’s trade from 2001 to 2016. Using bilateral trade data for commodity groups at the level of two digits of the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, this study examines the main patterns of comparative advantage in Russia's trade with South Africa in the early 21st century. Comparative analysis of Russia’s export specialization with the main partners in terms of trade turnover indicates, that Russia has more diverse comparative advantages in trade with South Africa (17 product groups), than with European partners, such as Germany (9 product groups) and Netherlands (8 groups). The study’s results suggest that an increase in trade flows is considered as one of the most important areas of Russian export diversification and strengthening cooperation between Russia and South Africa.