Rise of Putin as a hero on African TV

A social media influencer from South Africa who added "Vladimir" to his Twitter account to show his respect for the Russian president shares Russian-produced content with his 148,000 followers on Twitter and Telegram.

Pundits frequently praise Russia's invasion of Ukraine on the Cameroonian television network Afrique Média, which recently partnered with the state-funded Russian television network RT and reaches millions of viewers in Africa, the New York Times reports.

An animated video which emerged online depicts a valiant Russian commando from the Wagner group, fighting for Russia in Ukraine, teaming up with West African warriors to drive back an army of zombies from France. This video raises concerns in a recently released US intelligence papers.

Africa's news sources and social media platforms have been increasingly displaying pro-Russian propaganda over the past year.

The messages criticize American and European involvement in Africa and promote support for the invasion of Ukraine while highlighting Russia's expanding role there as advantageous.

A report claiming that in February the Russian military intelligence agency planned a propaganda campaign using African media to "realign" public opinion in Africa with Russia and away from the West is one of the US intelligence documents discovered leaked last week.

This content has been distributed by a wide range of media, including social media influencers, news websites, and television networks that have agreements with Kremlin-funded organizations.

Experts claim that some of the sites have connections to the Wagner group, a Kremlin-backed private military company that operates in numerous African nations and sends hundreds of mercenaries to support favourable governments and dig for gold and other natural resources while also spreading misinformation.

"Russian fake news is produced on an industrial scale here," said Abdoulaye Guindo, the coordinator of Benbere, a fact-checking website from Mali. "The prowess of pro-Russian accounts is undeniable."

At the same time, some regions of the continent are becoming less accessible to Western news sources. As part of a larger retrenchment, the BBC is laying off hundreds of journalists in Africa and closing down at least three channels that broadcast in regional African languages.

In Mali and Burkina Faso, where authorities allied with Russia have expelled French journalists, Radio France Internationale and France 24, which are supported by the French government, have been suspended. Such restrictions and expulsions "have created space for media favourable to a pro-Russian narrative," according to a recent research by Reporters Without Borders.

Russia wants to establish itself as a stronghold against the West in Africa, from the Central African Republic to Madagascar, Mali, and South Africa. Western governments became even more aware of this effect when 26 of the continent's 54 nations declined to participate in a UN resolution denouncing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Interviews with more than twenty government representatives, analysts, and journalists demonstrate how disinformation campaigns and media manipulation are advancing Russian goals in Africa.

Assistance from China

The Kremlin-backed television network RT (short for Russia Today) was banned by the European Union soon after the invasion of Ukraine.

Since that time, RT has increased its presence in the continent and has been working to establish an "English language Africa hub" in Johannesburg. This is done in order to "cover the broadest possible range of stories that are of interest to local audiences and RT's international viewers alike," according to Anna Belkina, RT's deputy editor in chief.

She claimed that Western nations have historically attempted "to curtail our journalistic work and stifle the perspectives we bring to public attention."

Séga Diarrah, a Malian journalist who claimed to have been hired to handle the relocation by the president of RT France, claimed that the French-language station had also intended to migrate from Europe to a Francophone nation in West Africa.

Russian content is also being disseminated through supportive African media outlets and influencers. According to Maxime Audinet, who investigates Russian media operations in Africa at IRSEM, a research center associated with the French military ministry, Sputnik and RT have partnerships with at least a dozen African news organizations. 

In December, Afrique Média, a broadcaster based in Cameroon, Central Africa, announced a cooperation with RT. On a news banner, it read, "The end of the West’s misleading propaganda."

Formerly largely targeted at audiences in France, Sputnik has changed the name of its French-speaking service to Sputnik Afrique. The majority of its current content is now from African nations. An evening news podcast from Sputnik is now played on a radio station in Mali that is situated in Bamako.

The Malian journalist, Mr. Diarrah, claimed that this was Moscow's strategy for expanding throughout Africa. "With mercenaries and media outlets."

Influencers on social media are also crucial.

Modibe "Vladimir" Modiba distributes videos from RT on Twitter and his own news site on Telegram from his house just outside of Johannesburg. In an interview, he insisted that he is paid by family and friends, not Russia.

He claimed that the "irritation" young Black South Africans were expressing toward the West and the country's dominant media was reflected in his attitudes.

He claimed that Western nations "always want to interfere with African issues, or you’re here to steal our resources."

There is evidence that Chinese businesses are promoting Russian material in Africa. Even when other companies dropped RT after the war, StarTimes, a media and satellite television provider with headquarters in Beijing, has kept the station available to clients.

Last month, protesters gathered in front of the French Embassy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, waving Russian flags and carrying portraits of Vladimir Putin.

A content-sharing deal allowed Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, to translate articles from Interfax, the Russian state news service, which were subsequently picked up by media outlets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other nations. 

According to Dani Madrid-Morales, a disinformation expert at the University of Sheffield, certain stories promoted the fake claim that the United States was keeping chemical weapons inside of Ukraine.

French zombies and Russian heroes

Between 2019 and 2022, Meta shut down at least eight separate networks of accounts that were attempting to reach African audiences on Facebook and Instagram. According to Meta, many were connected to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner network's founder. 

Facebook accounts in Mali also promoted Wagner last year, as mercenaries started arriving there.

The French military official, General Ianni, claimed that the media operations have subsequently become more sophisticated and noticeable.

An animated film that went viral on social media this year shows a commando leaping from a helicopter to save two besieged African soldiers from Mali and Burkina Faso. The commando's clothing is adorned with the Russian flag and the symbol of the Wagner Group.

Together with their Russian allies, the African soldiers overthrow the previous colonial power France, which is represented by threatening zombie-like skeletons and a gigantic snake. 

The Russian soldier tells his West African colleagues, "Happy to help."

Military and intelligence officials from Africa and the West expressed alarm over the message and format: Even audiences who cannot read can be reached by animated videos.

The use of influence operations and mercenaries in Africa is not unique to Russia; it has long been a point of contention between Russia and the West for influence there.

But now that Russia has been rejected by much of the West due to its invasion of Ukraine, it is attempting to reach additional African nations. 

According to Yurii Pyvovarov, Ukraine's ambassador to Senegal and four other West African nations, the Russian-produced media is also having an effect.

He said that a senior Senegalese official asked him why Ukraine had attacked Russia, a myth that is frequently spread in Russian media. 

Journalists from Senegal asked him about Ukraine's harbouring of Nazis, citing a Sputnik propaganda piece as evidence.

"If African states are so attached to neutrality, which I fully respect, why are they so attached to Russian narratives," Pyvovarov said in an interview.

Television networks like Afrique Média continue to focus heavily on pro-Russian reporting on the conflict in Ukraine, perhaps influencing the opinions of future generations of viewers.