Russia is seeking to further wield its influence in at least African 13 countries by grooming a new generation of leaders and undercover agents, according to leaked documents in The Guardian.
The leaked documents show that part of the strategy is to “strong-arm” the US and former colonial powers the UK and France out of the region. There are also concerted efforts to build relations with existing rulers and strike military deals.
The leaked documents were obtained by the Dossier Center, a London-based investigative unit. The centre is funded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Russian businessman and exiled critic of the Kremlin.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman based in St Petersburg and a close ally of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, is allegedly leading the push to turn continent into strategic hub. He is known as “Putin’s chef” because of the catering contracts he has with the Kremlin.
In 2018 the US Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted Prigozhin, claiming he was behind an army of trolls that ran an extensive social media campaign in 2016 to help elect Donald Trump. Prigozhin denies the allegation.
The Guardian says that western sanctions imposed in 2014 over the annexation of Crimea have prompted Putin to seek “new geopolitical friends and business opportunities” even though he “showed little interest in Africa in the 2000s”.
A number of firms linked to Prigozhin are known by employees as the “Company”. A map seen by The Guardian shows the level of cooperation between the “Company” and African governments, country by country, where five is the highest level and one is the lowest.
Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan and Madagascar are all ranked at five. Libya, Zimbabwe and South Africa are listed as four, with South Sudan at three, and DRC, Chad and Zambia at two.
The documents particularly single out the CAR, describing it as “strategically important” and a “buffer zone between the Muslim north and Christian south”.
They state that the CAR allows Russia to expand “across the continent”, and Moscow companies to strike lucrative mineral deals, one of the documents says.
Another recommends harvesting a database of Africans living in the US and Europe, which might be used to groom “future leaders” and “agents of influence”.