In West Africa, it has been nicknamed the “Company”. Behind this name, a network of Russian influence agents created by the leader of the Wagner Group, Evgueni Prigojine, and then taken over by the Russian foreign intelligence services after his death in August 2023.
From more than 1,400 internal documents they accessed, 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 promote Russian interests in Africa.
“Described as ‘counter-agents,’ these targets then become crucial cogs in spreading Russian influence in the targeted countries,” details the investigation, the latest installment in the series “Propaganda Machine,” dedicated to the mechanism 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.
Some of these Chadian journalists “were” [text incomplete].
