Russia was more "colonialist" than the vast majority of European countries. The primary difference is that Russia focused on countries that could be conquered without relying on sea lanes for supplies. Russia was also the last country to give up on its empire (eastern Europe and the other countries comprising the USSR). And Putin has called the decision to abandon its empire a mistake.

Independent of that, there is little evidence, that colonial governments were better or worse, than indigenous ones. There were colonial governments that were better than indigenous ones and the opposite was also true.

The narrative that colonial governments were somehow repressive and exploitive needs to be contrasted with how indigenous governments acted. For example, it is hard to say that Mugabe was less corrupt than the colonial government of Zimbabwe.

Beginning with an honest appraisal of the past and more importantly understanding the motives of nations going forward is far more useful than allowing misleading perceptions of the past to influence the development of a nation going forward. In the end, each African nation needs to decide first whether its own government is serving its citizens and then what other countries can it enter into agreements with that will improve the lives of its citizens.