Mikhail Margelov, 44, head of the Federation Council's foreign affairs committee, was appointed on Monday Russia's special envoy to Sudan by presidential decree.
"We must expand mutually beneficial cooperation with African countries and set up a special body for that," Margelov told reporters in Moscow.
The new envoy said relations between Russia and Sudan, in particular, have been improving in recent years in all spheres of cooperation, including the oil sector and arms sales. Bilateral trade has reached $30 million.
Oil exports have become an increasingly important part of Sudan's small economy in the past eight years, and production has reached 500,000 barrels per day. China, Sudan's largest foreign investor, runs the country's main oil projects.
According to Margelov, the Sudanese authorities have confirmed they could offer Russian companies engaged in the oil sector and railway construction in Sudan benefits to develop bilateral economic ties.
Russia recently delivered 12 MiG-29 Fulcrum air superiority fighters to the North African nation under an earlier contract.
While touting Sudan's development and prospects, the Russian senator said the country remained "a highly volatile political region" plagued by a number of ongoing conflicts.
"Russia is committed to political stability in this country, and our position is that the crisis in Sudan can be resolved only by political means," Margelov said, adding that all unresolved conflicts in Sudan and other African countries should be addressed with help, but not direct intervention, from the global community.
Russia has been deploying a peacekeeping contingent in southern Sudan, which comprises 120 personnel and four Mi-8 helicopters, since 2006.
The contingent provides transport services for UN military observers in Sudan, including accompanying freight, and also carries out rescue operations.
The first unit of Russian peacekeepers arrived in Sudan in April 2006. They are expected to stay - with regular rotations - for five or six years.
The UN Mission in Sudan was established in 2005 to monitor the peace agreement between the government in Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in southern Sudan, which ended the longest-running civil war in Africa.
The UN presence in Sudan has since been expanded to include peacekeeping operations in Darfur. Since 2003, Chad and Sudan have accused each other of inciting conflict on their common border, which is along the troubled west Sudanese region of Darfur.
According to international estimates, more than 200,000 people have been killed and around 2.5 million displaced in the ongoing conflict in Darfur.
