{"id":34171,"date":"2023-09-03T11:01:08","date_gmt":"2023-09-03T11:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/russias-african-coup-strategy"},"modified":"2023-09-03T12:10:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T12:10:22","slug":"russias-african-coup-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/russias-african-coup-strategy","title":{"rendered":"Russia\u2019s African coup strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>Today we are sharing a report from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) on Russian influence operations in Africa, principally focused on the Niger coup. We believe it is vital there is wider understanding of the ways in which the internet is being used to stoke political instability around the world.<\/p>\n<p>Recent weeks have seen a spate of military coups in French-speaking African countries \u2013 including Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Gabon \u2013 which have led to global concerns about a spiraling crisis of governance in the region.<\/p>\n<p>The report observes: The Niger coup leaders violently suppressed initial protests in the capital Niamey, imposed a curfew, and closed the borders. Counter-protests, supporting the coup and brandishing Russian flags, quickly followed using claims that France was seeking to restore the previous government to power and demands that France depart from the Sahel region of Africa.<\/p>\n<p>MTAC has identified several Nigerien civil society groups involved in these events. Two stand out for their unusually pro-Russian stance \u2013 PARADE Niger and the Union of Pan-African Patriots.<\/p>\n<p>The first appears to be a construct of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with little genuine local support while the second is a political vehicle for a single politician.<\/p>\n<p>These groups have defended the coup, called for greater cooperation with Russia and helped coordinate and amplify offline protest. They have also engaged in multiple examples of inauthentic online behavior to artificially promote content.<\/p>\n<p>More widely in Africa, MTAC has identified six basic elements to Russia\u2019s African coup playbook: Establishing long-term influence campaigns \u2013 Russia and its messengers in Africa produce a constant drip of content that is both anti-French and pro-Russian, concentrating on polarizing issues.<\/p>\n<p>and driven by colonial-era grievances. Aligning with the putschists \u2013 When a coup occurs, Russia\u2019s messengers quickly declare support for the putschists, often through proxies, including previous instances where the voice was the now-deceased Yevgeny Prigozhin.<\/p>\n<p>Seizing control of the narrative \u2013 In the days after a coup, Russian messengers align on prepositioned narratives, capitalizing on the information void. Post-coup messaging typically glorifies military and coup leaders and championing national sovereignty while denigrating France.<\/p>\n<p>Amplifying affiliates \u2013 Given their long-term investments in Africa-based, pro-Russian propagandists and IO networks, Russia can call upon a range of figures, both overt and covert, to loudly amplify their messaging, thereby crowding out competing narratives and creating the impression of popular agreement.<\/p>\n<p>Mobilizing supporters \u2013 Pro-coup demonstrations featuring Russian flags give the impression of widespread support for both the putsch and partnership with Russia while opposition to the coup is violently repressed, chilling dissent.<\/p>\n<p>Banning dissenting media \u2013 In Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, coup leaders have quickly identified Radio France International and France 24 as critical press and then suspended them, silencing the largest French-language sources of credible news from the West.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\">Mauritius<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Mauritius. Today we are sharing a report from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) on Russian influence operations in Africa, principally focused on the Niger coup. We believe it is vital there is wider understanding of the ways in which the internet is being used to stoke political instability around the world. Recent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":34170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233,245,474,241],"class_list":["post-34171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-african","tag-mauritius"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Russia\u2019s African coup strategy - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today we are sharing a report from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) on Russian influence operations in Africa ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/russias-african-coup-strategy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Russia\u2019s African coup strategy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today we are sharing a report from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) on Russian influence operations in Africa ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/russias-african-coup-strategy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-03T11:01:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-03T12:10:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2023\/09\/sm_1693730209.603696.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/russias-african-coup-strategy#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/russias-african-coup-strategy\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Russia\u2019s African coup strategy\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-03T11:01:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-03T12:10:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/russias-african-coup-strategy\"},\"wordCount\":477,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/russias-african-coup-strategy#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2023\/09\/sm_1693730209.603696.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"African\",\"Mauritius\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/russias-african-coup-strategy#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/russias-african-coup-strategy\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/russias-african-coup-strategy\",\"name\":\"Russia\u2019s African coup strategy - 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