russian information influence in Africa: key narratives spread by russian federation

Three key russian narratives have been identified after analyzing materials on African Twitter, YouTube and Facebook in the period from February 24, 2022 to June 6, 2023.

Anayit Khoperiya, Head of the Department for Countering Information Threats to National Security at the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC), made this statement during an event at the country’s main discussion platform BrainHub at Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform.

According to the NSDC representative, these are three key narratives that russia spreads in the information space of Africa: the narrative that russia contributes to global food security and is a reliable partner of Africa; the narrative that the West are all colonizers and imperialists; the most widespread narrative is that the West provoked the russian federation’s war in Ukraine and continues to fuel it.

“In general, unfortunately, we see very active massaging there, very active resources used in Africa by russia. They will continue. Because, roughly speaking, even when they withdrew from the grain agreement, it was not only a political step, but also an informational one. After such a step, they began to very actively enhance russia’s information influence – after russia’s withdrawal from the grain agreement, they very actively influenced African countries and their information space,” explained Anayit Khoperiya.

In addition, she emphasized that Ukraine needs to amplify its message in African countries so that the russians will understand that they will not be able to cover the territory with their harmful informational influence so easily.

BrainHub is the country’s main discussion platform created by Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform. It brings together experts from the state and civil society sectors. BrainHub hosts intellectual discussions around the issues of the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. It’s the birthplace of the best ideas that will become the foundation for the road map of Ukraine’s reconstruction in all sectors: economy, infrastructure, education, agriculture, security, digital, etc.

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