Abstract: Currently, the issue of international cooperation in countering transnational crimes is quite relevant for all countries of the world, including the Russian Federation and the countries of the African continent. In addition, the relevance of the chosen area of international cooperation for scientific research is given by the strengthening of Russian-African relations over the past few years in the context of a changing geopolitical structure of the world, one of the areas of which is the issue of effective counteraction to the most widespread transnational crimes. The subject of the study is the international counteraction to transnational crimes within the framework of cooperation between Russia and the countries of the African continent. The purpose of the research is to study international cooperation between Russia and African countries in the field of countering transnational crimes at the present stage. The methods used in the research were general (dialectical method, systematic and integrated approaches) and special formal legal methods. In the course of the research, the following results were obtained: the signs of transnational crimes identified in international law were studied, as well as their additional characteristics were indicated, the approaches of foreign and domestic experts to the definition of "transnational crimes" were analyzed, the content of international cooperation in the field of countering crimes was studied, the basis for international cooperation in the field of countering transnational crimes was outlined, and the author's definition of the concept of "transnational crimes". The results obtained have a scientific novelty due to the fact that they clarify the content of the concept of transnational crimes and can be applied in the practical activities of various public authorities, primarily in improving mechanisms for countering transnational crimes at the level of international cooperation, as well as in the framework of scientific and representative events on the subject of research.