As international concern mounts over Ukraine and Russia’s intentions, Moscow is applying a very clear anti-French strategy in Mali, Africa, first with the dispatch of 500 mercenaries from the Russian private military company Wagner at the end of 2021. Faced with the gradual withdrawal of French troops, Mali announced, through the voice of its Prime Minister, to explore other avenues for its security. The option of a paramilitary group then appeared, the Russian group Wagner, which has already been talked about in Ukraine, Syria and Libya. This deployment accepted and signed by the Malians is only one aspect of this “strategy of eviction from France”, according to the French high-ranking officers.
>> In Mali and the Central African Republic, France’s political message is no longer getting through
The other part is misinformation on social networks. It is sometimes rude, and it could even seem, from a distance, funny, like this video intended for Malians. It lasts five minutes, and a female robotic voice announces “an information news flash”. “Do you know that two-thirds of northern Mali have already been liberated? In less than a month. How long has France been in Mali?, asks the fake presenter. FAMa [Forces armées maliennes], in collaboration with the Russian military, carried out military engagements on January 12, 2021 in the north of the country, particularly around the town of Ansongo.
Misleading videos, in substance but also in form. Images allegedly shot a few days earlier in Mali but dating back several years and concerning another country, there are hundreds that saturate social networks. In Paris, at the headquarters of the French armies, all eyes are turned towards the east, towards Moscow.
The anti-French feeling expressed in the Sahel is not created by Russia, but it is used and exploited by Moscow. Part of the Malian population sees Barkhane as an occupying army. She tells herself that after nine years of war, France has not restored security, forgetting in passing to look at what the Malian army is doing, or rather not doing.
How is this anti-French sentiment exploited? By troll factories, fake account factories. “These are accounts, avatars that will participate in discussions and that come resolutely to disrupt the exchanges a little, explains Air Division General Didier Tisseyre, cyber defense commander at the Ministry of the Armed Forces. We are talking about troll factories, where in fact there is a semi-automated generation precisely with humans behind it and sometimes even the use of artificial intelligence or algorithms to be able to multiply the impact and the effect of these accounts.”
“We see it very recently in the attacks on a convoy, saying that these convoys were carrying weapons for terrorist groups. It seems crazy and at the limit, the crazier it is, the more it will be peddled.
General Didier Tisseyre, cyber defense commander at the Ministry of the Armed Forcesat franceinfo
Who is behind this anti-French strategy in the Sahel? Again, no direct evidence, but strong suspicions weigh on a man who finances both Wagner’s mercenaries and troll factories: Yevgueni Prigojine. In the 1990s, this former prisoner opened the first hot dog stand in Russia.
In Saint-Petersburg, he sees an ex-KGB agent who enters politics, Vladimir Putin. With this support, Evgueni Prigojine developed his business in catering, then in the media. Today, the Prigojine system is a trident: three points that have already perforated other African countries. “Each time they establish themselves in African countries or in Syria, we follow more or less the same triptych: military presence, presence of companies extracting raw materials and the media in information support, explains Colin Gérard, geopolitical analysis of the strategy of Russian informational influence in France. It has been observed in the Central African Republic. Wagner’s soldiers are there to train the Central African army, companies from Prigojine are there to extract diamonds, and the media are financed by the Russians to support and legitimize all this presence there.”
“Evgueni Prigojine acts according to the interests of the Kremlin, but above all according to his own interests and what is certain is that he has the tacit agreement of the Kremlin but that he will never be able to develop activities which would be contrary to the interests of Russia.
Colin Gérard, geopolitical analysis of the Russian informational influence strategy in Franceat franceinfo
In the Central African Republic, Evgueni Prigojine and his allies have also succeeded in getting their hands on customs resources. In Mali, for the moment, the government pays monthly ten million euros to Wagner for the 500 mercenaries, whose number grows a little every day.