The investigation says that former GRU commander Andrey Averyanov, who now oversees the “African Corps”, General Staff chief of GUMVS Alexey Orekhov, Russian Foreign Ministry employee Yuri Mikheev, and Navy captain Anton Papshev are involved in a propaganda operation in Madagascar. Journalists link Mikheev and Papshev to work for intelligence through their residential addresses near the Military Academy of the Ministry of Defense.
Before working in Africa, Mikheev was the second secretary of the Russian delegation to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, and Papshev served as an adviser at the Russian embassy in South Africa and then at the embassy in Ethiopia. In October 2025, Averyanov, Orekhov, Mikheev, and Papshev received the Order of Merit by decree of the president of Congo.
Investigators link the financial part of the scheme to Alexander Zingman and Oleg Vodchits, who had previously been suspected of involvement in arms trafficking in Africa. Aftrade DMCC, linked to Zingman, signed a contract with the government of Madagascar for 30.8 million euros to “transform the island’s agricultural system” by bypassing tender procedures and using funds under the 2015 Russian-Malagasy agreement.
In December 2025, Zingman and Vodchits visited Madagascar, and in January 2026 they were in Tanzania together with representatives of the A7 cryptocurrency payment system, which is run by pro-Russian Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor. Zingman’s representative called the suspicions of involvement in operations in Africa “part of a coordinated attack on his reputation” and declined to comment in detail, citing “corporate policy”.
Separately, the investigation describes Russia’s propaganda campaign through Rossotrudnichestvo and the African Initiative agency, which had previously been linked to the Wagner PMC and the FSB. Among the steps mentioned are the opening of a “Russian House” in Madagascar’s capital, trips by Malagasy bloggers to Russia, and a recruitment program for young African women to be sent to the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan to assemble combat drones.
The authors of the material write that Russia has been pursuing an active influence policy in Madagascar at least since the late 2010s. In 2018, structures linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Russian authorities took part in the campaign of Madagascar’s president Hery Rajaonarimampianina, who lost in the first round of voting. In September 2025, mass youth protests began on the island, first over electricity and water outages, and then against corruption, governance, and living standards. In October, President Andry Rajoelina fled the country, after which power passed to the military led by Colonel Michael Randrianirina. By December, a large Russian delegation headed by GRU General Andrey Averyanov had arrived in Madagascar.
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