If there is one area to which Moscow has paid particular attention since taking control of its African policy in 2019, it is that of the information struggle. What the French military call the “L2I”, the “computing struggle of influence”, that is to say the battle of opinion, especially on social networks. Recently, Paris has also assumed the use of the L2I, but with a certain delay compared to Moscow, whose methods have been well-honed for a long time and freed from moods, according to a note that The world was able to consult.
Through the informational struggle France seeks above all, in Africa and in particular in Mali, not to lose the war of hearts and minds definitively. But on the Russian side, the IT struggle for influence is first used to “discredit France”, because Moscow cannot “compete” Paris in terms of economic investment and development aid, consider the authors of the note in the preamble. “To take advantage, [la Russie] must make other arguments” : it does not ask, for example, to “counterparties” to his support on democracy or human rights, they point out.
“Relay of influence”
The “pro-Russian influence campaigns” would have started as early as 2019, in Mali. A period that would have coincided with the first incursions into the field by officials of the paramilitary company Wagner, whose presence is only confirmed in the fall of 2021. ” background noise “ anti-French was then orchestrated from a long-standing resentment in Malian public opinion. This will then gain visibility on social networks and gain strength after the second coup in Mali, in the spring of 2021, when Russia identifies a window of opportunity to establish itself permanently.
The cogs in Africa of this Russian-style L2I are partly known, even if Moscow never puts them forward or confirms them. This note specifies them. The first pillar of this strategy is the powerful Russian military intelligence service, the GRU. To develop the aura of Moscow on the African continent, the GRU would organize its campaigns by mixing L2I actions and classic cyberoffensive struggle. All based on “relay of influence”, rather than direct contact with his “target audience”.
In order to maximize the effectiveness of its actions, the GRU would first carry out in-depth studies of the media and audiences, with strong use of artificial intelligence in order to model the informational sphere. These methods are now being developed all over the world, but Moscow has an older mastery of them. Used in Africa, this “combined” work of the GRU was originally designed primarily against Ukraine and countries within the sphere of influence of the United States and the United Kingdom.
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