In West Africa, she has been nicknamed the “Company”. Behind this name, a network of Russian influence agents created by the leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, then taken over by the Russian foreign intelligence services after the latter’s death in August 2023.
Based on 1,400 internal documents to which they had access, the pan-African media outlet The Continent and the international investigative consortium Forbidden Stories were able to establish how Russia targeted West African journalists and civil society associations to serve and advance Russian interests in Africa.
“Qualified as ‘counter-agents’, these targets become cogs to expand Russian influence in targeted countries,” details the investigation, the latest installment of the “Propaganda Machine” series, dedicated to the mechanics of Russian propaganda in Africa.
The investigation details how some Chadian journalists were approached in the heart of the capital, N’Djamena, to write advertorials paid between 50,000 and 200,000 CFA francs (approximately 75 to 300 euros), equivalent to a month’s salary for a single publication. These were propaganda articles, directed mainly against France and Ukraine.
