Dr. Maxime Audinet is a Research Fellow at IRSEM and a specialist of Russian politics and Associate Fellow at Egmont Institute Africa Programme, he is a specialist of Russian politics and information influence  in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr Audinet will present research on Russian political discourse since February 2022, which reveals a compelling resurgence of rhetoric drawn from a past era: anti-colonialism. From President Vladimir Putin to members of parliament, from the RT news channel to Wagner Group mercenaries stationed in Africa, a spectrum of Russian voices has invoked the critique of Western “neo-colonial” interventionism on a near-daily basis, both domestically and abroad, since the onset of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Why has anti-(neo)colonialism—once central to Soviet internationalist ideals—reemerged in Russia’s political lexicon over two decades after the collapse of the USSR, and in the context of the war in Ukraine? Who is framing and promoting this rhetoric, how is it crafted, and for whom is it intended? What insights does it offer into the Russian elite’s perception of the international order, and how does it function as a new “strategic narrative” for Russia’s foreign policy ambitions?
In this presentation Dr. Audinet examines the key narrators of this anti-(neo)colonial discourse and its dissemination by the actors of Russia’s ecosystem of information influence in Africa. The analysis reveals three core objectives, at a time when Moscow purports to “de-Westernize” the international system: to legitimize Russia’s current foreign policy through a selective memory of Soviet support for anti-colonial movements; to renew anti-Western critiques via a process of accusatory inversion; and to appeal to audiences in the “Global South” by seeking ideological and discursive resonances.

Please register by 24 January.

Please note that this is an in-person event.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)