In late July, deadly riots erupted in Angola’s capital Luanda in the worst violence since the end of the civil war two decades earlier. Spurred by a fuel price hike, the unrest lasted for several days until it was crushed by the Angolan authorities, resulting in at least 30 deaths and 1,200 arrests.
Among them were two Russian nationals, including 64 yo Lev Lakhstanov, accused by the Angolan government of masterminding the unrest. Lakshtanov is a seasoned veteran of Russian soft power, having founded an NGO working in Lusophone countries backed by Rossotrudnichestvo, an agency under the authority of the Russian Foreign Ministry assessed as having organized rallies in Europe supporting the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
An investigation by RFI and the watchdog All Eyes On Wagner shows that Lakshtanov and his associate Igor Ratchin posed as independent journalists and established contacts with UNITA, the main opposition party that was also a major faction in the Angolan Civil War, against the MPLA, which has ruled the country since the independence in 1975.
While there is no concrete evidence that the pair is directly tied to the unrest, their presence in Angola shows an extension of Russian influence operations in Africa, until now relatively limited to Francophone countries in Central and Western Africa.
The incident mirrors a similar event in Chad in 2024, when four Russian nationals tied to Wagner were arrested after trying to hire local journalists to publish articles favorable to Russia – they were detained during the inauguration of a cultural center funded by Rossotrudnichestvo in the capital N’djamena.
Nearly two years after the assassination of Evgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin’s operations in Africa have been reorganized under the umbrella of Africa Initiative – for the soft power – and Africa Corps – for the hard power – both intervening alongside allied governments in the Central African Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Libya’s Tobruk government, and undercover in other countries sensitive to Russian interference – such as Sudan or Chad.
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!ping AFRICA&RUS
In late July, deadly riots erupted in Angola’s capital Luanda in the worst violence since the end of the civil war two decades earlier. Spurred by a fuel price hike, the unrest lasted for several days until it was crushed by the Angolan authorities, resulting in at least 30 deaths and 1,200 arrests.
Among them were two Russian nationals, including 64 yo Lev Lakhstanov, accused by the Angolan government of masterminding the unrest. Lakshtanov is a seasoned veteran of Russian soft power, having founded an NGO working in Lusophone countries backed by Rossotrudnichestvo, an agency under the authority of the Russian Foreign Ministry assessed as having organized rallies in Europe supporting the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
An investigation by RFI and the watchdog All Eyes On Wagner shows that Lakshtanov and his associate Igor Ratchin posed as independent journalists and established contacts with UNITA, the main opposition party that was also a major faction in the Angolan Civil War, against the MPLA, which has ruled the country since the independence in 1975.
While there is no concrete evidence that the pair is directly tied to the unrest, their presence in Angola shows an extension of Russian influence operations in Africa, until now relatively limited to Francophone countries in Central and Western Africa.
The incident mirrors a similar event in Chad in 2024, when four Russian nationals tied to Wagner were arrested after trying to hire local journalists to publish articles favorable to Russia – they were detained during the inauguration of a cultural center funded by Rossotrudnichestvo in the capital N’djamena.
Nearly two years after the assassination of Evgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin’s operations in Africa have been reorganized under the umbrella of Africa Initiative – for the soft power – and Africa Corps – for the hard power – both intervening alongside allied governments in the Central African Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Libya’s Tobruk government, and undercover in other countries sensitive to Russian interference – such as Sudan or Chad.
[Forbidden Stories did a great expose of the architecture of Russian disinformation operations in Africa, thanks to the defection of a former propagandist in the Central African Republic](https://forbiddenstories.org/projects_posts/the-propaganda-machine-2/)
On one hand the Russians meddling in Angola like this is highly worrisome
On the other hand…
OUR JOURNEY TO VICTORY HAS BEGUN. DEATH TO THE MPLAAAAAAAA