russia attempts to legitimize the occupation through “cooperation with Africa”
The head of rossotrudnichestvo— an organization responsible for promoting russian propaganda abroad — yevgeny primakov stated that the occupied city of Donetsk is interested in cooperation with African countries, particularly in the areas of food security, education, and industry.
▫️Such statements are primarily political in nature. primakov himself openly admits that the main objective is to achieve “recognition of the ‘dpr’ as part of russia” by African states. Through contacts with foreign bloggers, journalists, and students, russia seeks to legitimize the occupation and create the illusion that the seized territories are supposedly full-fledged participants in international cooperation.
▫️The occupied territories are unlikely to share any valuable experience with Africa, as their economies are in deep crisis and function only thanks to subsidies from moscow. The only “export” from the temporarily occupied territories that russia consistently promotes remains propaganda.
Such promises of “international cooperation” are not new. For example, russian propaganda previously claimed plans to supply coal from the occupied Luhansk region to African countries. However, more than a year after these loud statements, no real contracts or deliveries have taken place.
