The African Initiative press agency has been exposed for ties to Russian intelligence and conducting deceptive influence operations.
A recent technical report has cast a harsh spotlight on the “African Initiative” press agency, unmasking its alleged ties to Russian intelligence and its sophisticated, yet deceptive, influence operations across the African continent. Published in June by Viginum, France’s watchdog against information manipulation, the report, “African Initiative: From Public Diplomacy to Covert Influence Operations,” reveals Nigeria as a central pillar in Russia’s strategic ambitions – both as a target for manipulation and a launchpad for broader propaganda efforts.
The Agency and its Kremlin Connections
Presenting itself as a benign “information bridge between Russia and Africa,” African Initiative, in reality, appears to function primarily as a conduit for pro-Kremlin narratives. Despite a prolific output of over 18,000 articles by April 2025, its digital footprint remains surprisingly limited, with afrinz.ru attracting an average of only 35,000 monthly visits between December 2024 and February 2025.
However, the agency’s organizational structure and key personnel hint at deeper, more concerning affiliations. Artyom Kureyev, its editor-in-chief, has been sanctioned by the European Union for “malign activities” and is widely believed to be a former Russian intelligence officer. Further cementing its state ties, African Initiative’s official launch was covered by Zvezda, the Russian Ministry of Defence’s official television channel. The agency also actively champions “Africa Corps,” the rebranded iteration of the controversial PMC Wagner group.
Nigeria: A Hub for AI-Driven Deception
A critical facet of African Initiative’s strategy is “Al-Freak,” an “Information Manipulation Set (IMS)” characterized by clandestine digital activities. The report defines IMS as “a collection of behaviors, tools, tactics, techniques, procedures and adversary resources used by malicious actors for information operations.” In this context, the operation leverages AI-generated content – including images, texts, and videos – to spread its influence.
Al-Freak operates through a network of fake media websites, with newstop.africa serving as a prominent French-language platform targeting the African continent. While deceptively purporting to be based in Niger, the site’s contact telephone number, bearing Nigeria’s dialing code (+234), strongly suggests Nigeria’s integral role within African Initiative’s broader information manipulation efforts. This indicates Nigeria may serve as a central hub or a primary audience for the deceptive content disseminated by Al-Freak.
Content published on newstop.africa consistently promotes pro-Russia, anti-Ukraine, and anti-Western narratives. These messages are amplified through a variety of deceptive tactics, including inauthentic X accounts featuring AI-generated profile pictures, Private Blog Networks (PBNs) designed to create artificial backlinks, the exploitation of technical vulnerabilities on legitimate partner websites to insert hidden backlink pages, and automated blog comments.
Exploiting Nigerian Grievances to Advance Russian Interests
Beyond its role in facilitating Al-Freak, Nigeria is also a key focus for the promotion of African Initiative’s mobile application, “AFree.” Launched in February 2024, AFree aims to rival Western social media platforms and has been heavily advertised on the Newstop Afrique website and the newstop.africa X account, further linking it to the Al-Freak operation.
Notably, the AFree app has seen significant offline promotion within Nigeria. A high-profile launch event in Lagos on July 29, 2024, signals a substantial logistical and financial investment in establishing its presence. African Initiative has further solidified its Nigerian connection through an interview with AFree’s official representative in the country, identified as a lecturer at the Russian Peoples’ Friendship University (RUDN University) in Moscow. This individual’s narratives closely echo African Initiative’s broader anti-Western agenda, specifically highlighting “Nigerians’ discontent, the rapid rise in the cost of living and the economy’s dependence on Western countries.” This strategy shrewdly exploits existing socio-economic grievances to cultivate anti-Western sentiment and position Russia as a viable alternative.
While African Initiative exhibits rapid and opportunistic expansion across the African continent, with notable activities in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Kenya, and Libya (a target for Africa Corps deployment), its multi-layered engagement in Nigeria – encompassing both the overt promotion of the AFree app and the subtle technical ties within Al-Freak – unmistakably positions Nigeria as an integral component of Russia’s evolving hybrid influence mechanism in Africa.
Images, Source: the Viginum report See link: https://www.sgdsn.gouv.fr/files/files/Publications/20250612_TLP-CLEAR_VIGINUM_FCDO_EEAS_Technical_Report_African_Initiative_EN.pdf
