Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan began a three-day visit to Russia on Wednesday, meeting counterpart Vladimir Putin at a time when her country's reputation in the West has been badly damaged.
Western diplomats and rights groups accused her government of massacring hundreds of people during election unrest last October and of conducting a spate of abductions and murders of critics in the run-up to the vote.
The United States announced it was reviewing relations with Tanzania in the wake of the violence, and last week sanctioned a senior police officer over the torture of two well-known activists.
By contrast, Putin was one of the first to congratulate Hassan on the election, which saw her claim 98% of the vote.
During a televised meeting with Putin in the Kremlin, Hassan described her trip to Russia as "historic."
