Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

This is

You're actually

the fifth floor.

The fifth floor de noos the fifth floor in Newseus.

We see me as well.

To me have this fifth floor

fornak and me do so but.

This is the fifth floor at the heart of global storytelling with BBC journalists from all around the world.

I'm your host, Parenak Amidie D. What do a graffiti festival, a first aid training and a football match have in common?

Well, these are all events set up by African Initiative, a Russian media organization which defines itself as, I quote,

an information bridge between Russia and Africa. In this episode of the

Fifth floor we have two journalists from the BBC Disinformation Unit, Olarengue,

Alo and Maria Coronnuke, who have been investigating

this media organization and its activities in the Sahel region of Africa.

Maria is in the studio with me and Olarangke is joining us from our BBC offices in Nigeria.

Maria I'm going to start with you. What is African initiative?

Actually I will probably start with the fact that, you know, these days in the West audiences

mainly hear about Russia in its context of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but it's interesting that while continuing the war in the neighboring country

Russia is still investing significant resources into African countries.

So last year in Moscow it was announced about the creation of a new

organization called African Initiative which as you mentioned defined itself as a news agency with its headquarters in Moscow, but also

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