From the Sahel to South Africa, Putin talks to everyone and uses the local language: money and weapons

Resist, resist, resist. From Moscow, proof that something has shifted in Africa comes from Mikael Randrianirina, the unlikely president of Madagascar. “We call on Russia to step up its efforts in the field of information to counter what we call the ‘soft power offensive’. The Europeans are using it to tarnish the reputation of those African leaders who are not sufficiently willing to accept their usual methods and policies.” It is a sign of the times that Europe is struggling enormously to reverse. Whilst Libya has long been the natural conduit for Russian military supplies to the Sahara and Algeria is making military moves in Niger with Vladimir Putin’s blessing, France has recently been tentatively attempting to regain a foothold in the Sahel – following the visit to the Élysée Palace by the President of Chad, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, it appears that a couple of Mirage 2000 jets are ready to return to base in N’Djamena. Moscow, however, is everywhere. There is a war for influence, of course. “The bear and the ‘bot farm’”, as Will Brown, an expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, put it. But there is also a more brutal one, which consists of taking over the traditional media systems of African countries.

Following South Africa, Tanzania and Ethiopia, Sputnik has announced the opening of a new editorial office in Burkina Faso. The CEO, Dmitry Kiselev, spoke at the Russia-Africa Media Forum and noted that the news agency already operates on the continent in six languages – French, English, Arabic, Swahili, Oromo and Amharic – that views of Sputnik’s content on social media in Africa total 14 million per week, and that this figure is set to reach 554 million by 2026. These figures reflect a cultural penetration that goes hand in hand with religious dialogue. On the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Summit, 16 Orthodox priests travelled to Moscow to foster dialogue with the Moscow Patriarchate. Until 2021, Africa fell under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, which, however, recognised the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In retaliation, Moscow established an exarchate to bring together the African dioceses, thereby creating a schism with the Alexandrian Patriarchate. Today, around 350 Russian Orthodox parishes are spread across 32 African countries.

Then there is the economy, and on this front it is clear that Russia is still struggling to keep up with Europe. However, in Mali, the state-controlled company Rosgeologiya has signed agreements with Bamako to develop a digital geological map and an information system to manage the country’s mining sector. The President of the Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, took advantage of his trip to Moscow to sign three cooperation agreements with Putin. In particular, they have expanded their collaboration on the recruitment programme promoted by the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Tatarstan, Russia. At the site, hundreds of women aged 18 to 22 are recruited from across the world—many of them from Africa—under the false pretence of working in civilian sectors such as catering or construction, only to end up assembling Geran military drones destined for the Ukrainian front. Further east, in Sudan, the Chairman of the Sovereign Transitional Council, Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan, expressed to Putin his full willingness to allow Russians to enter the country. “We are strongly committed to cooperating with Russia in this area. We have areas that we are ready to make available to Russia for investment. I am referring to copper and gold mining, and I assure you, in all sincerity, that we are ready to cooperate in this sector.” A smiling Putin welcomed the invitation to set foot in a country that boasts direct access to the Red Sea. Not far away, Ethiopia received 12 Su-35 fighter jets three days ago, a year ahead of schedule. President Abiy Ahmed has demonstrated his ability to engage with a wide range of partners, from Washington to Europe to Abu Dhabi, and his rapport with Putin is evident in the announcement of the acquisition of four Russian S-400 air defence batteries, while he is also involved in a new war in Tigray and harbours expansionist ambitions stretching as far as the coast of Eritrea. In West Africa, the dictator of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang, has asked Putin “to increase the number of instructors” and to bolster Equatorial Guinea’s military capabilities, “so that any attack can be repelled in the future”. The scenario that most worries the Americans and Europeans is a repeat in West Africa of the failure seen in the Sahel.