The supply of weapons and direct military assistance to African military juntas is only part of russia's strategy to consolidate its influence on the continent. In parallel, moscow is waging a war for the minds of Africans, deploying a hybrid network of so-called “russian houses”.

The opening of “russian houses” in Africa is carried out through the federal agency “rossotrudnichestvo” in coordination with the “Center for People's Diplomacy” (CPD) — an organization founded in 2024 with the declared goal of expanding the “russian houses” network across the African continent.

The CPD's official mission is to deliver “reliable” information about russia to Africans. The Center's Director General is dmitry savelyev, a state duma deputy from putin's party “edinaya rossiya”.

The “russian houses” project in Africa is coordinated by a steering group:

• natalia krasovskaya — Executive Director; also serves as co-founder and head of the “Consortium of russian Universities for Work with African Countries”;
• leonid isaev — Adviser to the Executive Director, responsible for organizing delegation visits to Africa, and a research fellow at the Institute for African Studies of the russian Academy of Sciences;
• valeria manovitskaya — Deputy Executive Director, Head of the Educational Projects Department, and curator of “rossotrudnichestvo” and “russian houses” in Africa.

moscow currently plans to open influence hubs in eight African countries: Nigeria (Lagos), Sierra Leone (Freetown), Togo (Lomé), Mozambique (Maputo), Mali (Bamako), Senegal (Dakar), Liberia (Monrovia), and São Tomé and Príncipe (São Tomé).

The primary target audience is youth. The “russian houses” will conduct systematic ideological conditioning, including through screenings of soviet and russian films and the distribution of ideologically curated literature.

A separate focus area is preparing young Africans to relocate to russia as labor migrants or students: they will be presented with an image of a “happy russia” and taught the russian language.

The reality, however, is starkly different from this picture. For many African students in particular — a trip to russia ends with signing a contract with the occupying forces and dying in assault units on the front lines of the criminal war against Ukraine.

The Defenсe Intelligence of Ukraine has repeatedly brought the stories of these individuals to the attention of the international community, including: Hamzat Kazeen Kalawole and Mbah Steven Udoku (Nigeria), Nyambura Eric Mwangi, Clinton Nyapara Moges, Ombwori Denis Bagaka and Wahome Simon Gititu (Kenya).

The kremlin's ultimate goal is to raise an entire generation of ideologically loyal Africans who will not ask uncomfortable questions about russia's criminal and harmful activities on their soil.

This is strategically necessary for moscow, as the true purpose of its presence in Africa is the mass and uncontrolled depletion of natural resources — the outright plunder of African peoples, with catastrophic consequences for future generations in both the economic and environmental spheres.

A telling example is Sudan, where kremlin-controlled groups have contaminated water resources with mercury through predatory artisanal gold mining. Pollution of this scale takes years to remediate — it is an environmental weapon of slow destruction.

The local population in this scheme is regarded purely as cheap labor — both in russian-operated enterprises within African countries and in facilities inside russia itself, where Africans end up after being “prepared” through the “russian houses”.

The kremlin's promises of development and partnership, along with the ideological conditioning of African populations through the “russian houses” network, are cover elements for classic colonial exploitation and plunder in Africa.