In the Central Africa’s Burkina Faso and Mali, and recently in Niger, Russia actively finances measures to maintain the popularity of the Russian flag and other paraphernalia among local youths.
That’s according to The New York Times, Ukrinform reports.
Young people in those countries think that Moscow can ease their economic burden, especially in Ngeria, which has been sanctioned by its West African neighbors since a coup in late July.
The Russian flag has become a symbol of resistance in West Africa, associated with anti-Western and anti-French sentiment, according Kyle Walter, a propaganda expert in Niger.
It is noted that Russian mercenaries, weapons, and flags have become an attribute of the path along which the countries of West and Central Africa are now moving.
Analysts and Western diplomats are convinced that the Russian government finances the spread of its flags in order to exert influence on West African capitals.
This was admitted by the president of the Nigerian civil society group Parade, Ahmed Bello, who said that at each really in the country’s capital, Niamey, he distributes up to 70 Russian flags and that his work is financed by the Russian government through intermediaries who run the same operations in Mali.
According to the publication, the group was created under the auspices of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and serves as a front for Kremlin-backed operations on the continent. Russia is seen by many young Africans as an alleged anti-colonial state that will help them get rid of their colonial past.
