Russia reportedly strengthens influence in Africa through consulting companies controlled by intelligence services

The Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, which involves consulting firms linked to Russian secret services used to strengthen Russian influence on the African continent, will hold a conference in the Russian city of Sochi in November.

Source: The Insider news outlet

Details: Since 2018, Russia has been actively promoting its influence in Africa, pushing out the United States, France and other European countries. A key role in this process is played by the fourth directorate of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) [which is responsible for the Middle East and Africa – ed.] and FSB's Operational Information and International Relations Service (so-called FSB’s fifth service), who have been involved in high-profile international scandals, including Russia's interference in the US presidential election.

The intelligence services use former Soviet residencies [an overseas agency of a foreign intelligence agency – ed.] to recruit agents among local politicians, military officers and journalists. To expand its influence, Russia has set up a number of consulting firms, including Bureau Legint with an annual budget of 100 million roubles (about US$1 million).

Legint was founded by Viktor Boyarkin, a former GRU naval intelligence officer, and his wife Tatyana, who previously worked as an accountant at the GRU headquarters on 76B Khoroshovskoye Shosse (military unit No.45807) in Moscow.

Quote: "In 2005, Boyarkin headed the security service of RUSAL CEO Oleg Deripaska [a Russian oligarch under sanctions – ed.] and performed his special tasks in Africa. An internal RUSAL document is circulating on the web, instructing Boyarkin to work on the issue of removing ministers and prefects in Guinea from office and replacing them with those who are loyal [to Russia – ed.]."

Details: In 2006, Boyarkin instructed a pro-Kremlin party in Montenegro to ensure that its supporters voted correctly in the independence referendum. He even supposedly took suitcases with money there. 

These details surfaced in 2018, when he tried to collect a debt from Donald Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort, who had advised the same opposition party in Montenegro. As a result, Manafort went to jail, and Deripaska and Boyarkin were subject to US sanctions.

Together with Sergei Karaganov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst who recently proposed preemptive nuclear strikes on Europe, Boyarkin is a member of the Foreign and Defence Policy Council and publishes his advice to the Kremlin on how to counter Western sanctions.

In addition to Legint, Boyarkin founded the Association for Economic Cooperation with African Countries, which works with the Russkiy Mir Foundation to implement the Russia-Africa: Friendship Across Years and Distances programme. This programme covers a number of African countries, including Senegal and Mali. 

One of its tasks is to promote Russian propaganda by involving public figures, such as cosmonaut Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, who was convincing local students in Senegal of the benefits of friendship with Russia. Similar propaganda events involving Kud-Sverchkov are planned for Tunisia, Morocco, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Côte d'Ivoire and Zambia, with the Russian Presidential Foundation as the main sponsor.

The Russian consultancy also works through diplomatic channels, organising, for example, trips for the wives of African diplomats, thus creating additional operational links.

Another project of Boyarkin is the Business Advisory Council for Libya. It was created at the insistence of the FSB, which sought to expand its residency in the Middle East. Yevgeny Sosonkin, an officer of the FSB's fifth service, was appointed as the council's executive director.

Prior to becoming Libya's supervisor, he graduated from the FSB Academy's Information Security Department and worked as a Syria expert at the Centre for Middle East and Central Asia Studies.

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