The Kremlin is targeting African newsrooms. It’s working
In early December, a senior editor in a major Kenyan newsroom received an email from Moscow. It came with an attachment, an op-ed penned by Oleg Ozerov, the ambassador-at-large and head of the secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum.
The piece attacked European policies in Africa and Europe’s position on Ukraine. The gist of Ozerov’s piece was sensible: African countries had a “sovereign right to choose partners,” it argued. But the tone of the actual pitch was counterproductive. “Our side requests to publish it in full without any edits, or cuts, at the earliest opportunity,” the email demanded.
The newsroom turned down Ozerov’s offer, knowing full well that it was a matter of time before another op-ed from a Russian official landed in their inbox.
“Opinion pieces like this come almost every day,” the Kenyan editor told a group of journalists, myself included, when we visited his newsroom in Nairobi last week. “Some come from the embassy in Nairobi, but also directly from Moscow.” How many Ukrainian op-eds had the newsroom received? I asked. The answer: just one since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine ten months ago.