--- title: Russia's Growing Influence in Africa Serves as a Warning description: Moscow's inroads will cause democracy to lose ground in Africa, argues Sandun Munasinghe of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. canonical: https://time.com/6163624/russia-africa/ author: Sandun Munasinghe article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-04-05T02:58:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:42:37.235Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Column: Russia's Influence in Africa Serves as a Warning og:description: Moscow's inroads will cause democracy to lose ground in Africa, argues Sandun Munasinghe og:url: https://time.com/6163624/russia-africa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt569fd2d4e191c860/698a30a84ee262431f31a10a/GettyImages-1238870850.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: ETHIOPIA-RUSSIA-UKRAINE-CONFLICT-HISTORY-CELEBRATION og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Column: Russia's Influence in Africa Serves as a Warning twitter:description: Moscow's inroads will cause democracy to lose ground in Africa, argues Sandun Munasinghe twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt569fd2d4e191c860/698a30a84ee262431f31a10a/GettyImages-1238870850.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The World Needs to Pay Attention to Russia's Growing Influence in Africa > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=2eb49320-fbdf-42e5-80a7-87dc23f0a6fa&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Artist eL Seed Takes Calligraphy to The Streets [Watch (HLS stream): The Artist eL Seed Takes Calligraphy to The Streets](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Fnc4M3w4.m3u8) (3:11)  _Published 2022-04-04. The Dubai-based artist eL Seed, who draws upon Arabic calligraphy's looping and curved shapes to create mesmerizing and often massive installations of wood, metal, glass and more, believes words are powerful—and that's why he incorporates them into his work._ by [Sandun Munasinghe](https://time.com/author/sandun-munasinghe/) ## Sandun Munasinghe Apr 5, 2022 2:58 AM UTC  A man waves a Russian flag during the celebration of the 126th anniversary of the Battle of Adwa, at Menelik Square in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Mar. 2, 2022. A man waves a Russian flag during the celebration of the 126th anniversary of the Battle of Adwa, at Menelik Square in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Mar. 2, 2022. AMANUEL SILESHI/AFP via Getty Images by [Sandun Munasinghe](https://time.com/author/sandun-munasinghe/) ## Sandun Munasinghe Apr 5, 2022 2:58 AM UTC In 2018, contestants lined up in Bangui stadium to vie for the title of Miss Central African Republic (CAR). As they paraded, a new power on the regional stage was also doing its best to woo onlookers. With walls adorned in Russian flags, the Kremlin’s sponsoring of the CAR’s [first beauty pageant](https://www.france24.com/en/20181212-russian-influence-show-c-african-beauty-contest) in three years marked a showy bid by President Vladimir Putin to extend Russia’s soft power on the continent. While the focus remains on Ukraine following Moscow’s invasion, Africa has, for some time, been a second front in Putin’s confrontation with the West and cannot be ignored. With [17 African nations](https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2022/03/09/figure-of-the-week-african-countries-votes-on-the-un-resolution-condemning-russias-invasion-of-ukraine/) abstaining, and 1 voting against, the Mar. 2 U.N. resolution condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine, the magnitude of Putin’s decade-long charm offensive is becoming plain. A [new report](https://institute.global/policy/security-soft-power-and-regime-support-spheres-russian-influence-africa) from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change shows how Russia is reviving Soviet-era ties with African states to extract resources from the region, and in exchange, become a security provider. Putin now appears to consider Africa an arena of his imperialist ambition, and hopes to lure the continent away from Western influence. Africa is home to some of the [fast-growing economies](https://www.fdiintelligence.com/article/75841) in the world and is abundant in natural resources. But the challenges faced by much of the continent—poverty, inflation, and deep-lying inequalities—are outpacing the abilities of many governments to service their populations, leading to instability. African leaders are pursuing various avenues of support, with Russia emerging as their new multipurpose ally. **Read More:** [_The Growing Global Fallout From Russia’s War in Ukraine_](https://time.com/6160948/global-fallout-russias-invasion-ukraine/) It is a relationship based on paradox. Russia has a vested interest in the deployment of private military contractors (PMCs) in the region. Thus instead of bringing peace, it thrives on instability in African states and volatility among Africa’s leadership. --- ### More from TIME --- Since the invasion of Crimea in 2014, Russian PMCs have deployed to at least 19 African nations. One of them, the Wagner Group, has been tasked with operations that range from protecting commercial assets and fighting Islamist terrorists to the suppressing of anti-government uprisings. In Sudan, at least 500 Wagner men were deployed during 2017 to train the [notorious](https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/01/sudan-unlawful-detentions-rapid-support-forces) Rapid Support Forces, and also to combat rebels who opposed President Omar al-Bashir. In Libya, Wagner provided military support to General Khalifa Haftar in his bid to oust the Western-backed U.N. Government of National Accord (GNA). Wagner also trained a mercenary rebel group that, last year, killed the Chadian president [Idriss Deby](https://www.cfr.org/blog/unfolding-consequences-idriss-debys-death). PMC operations are linked to the extraction of natural resources. Following Wagner’s support for al-Bashir, [gold mining licenses](https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2022/02/08/russias-wagner-group-in-africa-influence-commercial-concessions-rights-violations-and-counterinsurgency-failure/) were awarded to a company reportedly linked to Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, the [alleged](https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2019/08/africa/putins-private-army-car-intl/) funder of the group. In a similar vein, the CAR awarded gold and diamond mining licenses to another of Prigozhin’s businesses, after Wagner was deployed to train its army and provide personal security to embattled President Faustin-Archange Touadéra. (Prigozhin has regularly [denied](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59699350) any connection to Wagner.)  Protesters hold a banner reading "Thank you Wagner," the name of the Russian private security firm in Mali, during a celebration of the French military withdrawal, Bamako, Feb. 19, 2022. FLORENT VERGNES/AFP via Getty Images ## Russia’s threat to democracy in Africa With the U.S. and French military draw-down in Africa, Russia is looking to prove itself as an alternative. Its [deployment to Mali](https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/12/russias-presence-mali-raises-concerns) in December 2021 demonstrated the rapid support Moscow is able to offer struggling regimes. But Russia is also influencing from within. Since Putin’s embrace of the region in the last decade, political strategists have been sent to African governments, including those of the CAR and Madagascar, to counsel their leaders. The funding of pro-Russian television channels in Africa, electoral interference—even, indeed, the sponsoring of beauty pageants—are other methods to sway sentiment among Africans. The receptiveness of some African leaders to Russian overtures is meanwhile a threat to liberal democratic reforms. The growing tendency to request PMC support for mounting security challenges, as Russian influence increases among African societies, is a clear indicator of a deepening authoritarian footprint on the continent. **Read More:** [_China’s Embrace of Putin Is Looking More and More Costly_](https://time.com/6163807/china-russia-putin-ukraine/) The West needs to take notice. China has long outpaced Western countries to become [Africa’s biggest investor](https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/markets/china-ranks-ahead-of-america-as-the-largest-investor-in-africa-since-2010/62532rh), while the presence of Western troops in conflict-affected countries has not been enough to ensure Africa’s peace and security. The region needs sustained support, militarily and economically. If the West cannot provide it, it will lose ground. African abstentions from the U.N. vote to condemn Russian action in Ukraine shows that the West must not take its engagement with Africa for granted. Romanticizing democracy is not enough; thorough, long-term policy action and relationship-building with African states is a must. Just as Africa, and Russia, are re-evaluating their places on the world stage, now is the time for the West to renew its commitment to the continent. Pageants are not won by wallflowers. ## Transcript I define my art as loops, curves, dynamics. I use Arabic calligraphy as my main medium, mostly  on the pubic space. I create large-scale murals and   sculptures, and I use art you know as a tool to get  into those kind of marginalized space you know   and speak about theme or causes close to my  heart. What I love about what I do actually,   it's the human experience. I think I keep  doing it because of the human experience. I do not think of the legibility of my work  when I create it. Arabic calligraphy if you're   not familiar with it you will see my work as an  abstract piece, not something that you can read,   and then people ask me what's written. That's the  second layer, the message, and then the third layer   is like the context, why I'm writing this, in  this place, at this time and not something else. When I did this piece on the border of North  and South Korea, there's no link with the Arab word   and this place of the world, but how I create  this connection between my art and the people   of the place is that I use words  from the place, so I use on this project,   for example, I use a quote from this poet called  Kim So-wol. He wrote a love poem about separation,   and so using those words translated from Korean  to English then Arabic you know, so yes you lose   a bit of the substance of the original work, but  the meaning is still there, and this is what I   try to convey, this kind of conversation between my  work and the people and the culture and generation,   so I create this full bridge. I think  Dubai is perceived sometime in the wrong way. When you think of Dubai, you don't think of  an artistic or like a grassroots community   or you know underground community. Sometimes  what is interesting to be here is like   the fact of meeting people from different places,  the fact of having such a diversity and maybe   from outside you don't have this perception of  what the Arab world is you know and was always. Being here and seeing people from different  communities, different ethnicity, different religion,   and being able to practice and live in their own  I mean own terms you know but still you know in   respect of everybody else. I think yeah it shows  there is some some tolerance, and I think this is   what I try to convey you know like with  all the projects that I've done around the world. I think there's a time where i realized that  my art would have an impact you know and   made me realize that I had a responsibility  as an artist, a social responsibility. I think today, this drives me. I love of course  the aesthetic of creating art you know. It's not   the beauty of it in a certain way but also having  art with a purpose behind/. 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