African Initiative

Russia · Quick Facts

CaPr

Revised from Captured Public

100%

Held by a private individual, Sergei Volkov

RUB 151m

2025 revenue, from RUB 44.88m in 2024

EU · UK

The entity itself designated by both

Operator

OOO Initsiativa-23, a Moscow limited-liability company registered on 21 September 2023 with charter capital of RUB 10,000. Registry data identify Sergei Anatolyevich Volkov as sole founder and 100 per cent owner, and the registered ownership form is private

Leadership

Artem Kureev is General Director of Initsiativa-23 and Editor-in-Chief of African Initiative; the EU Council identifies him as an FSB officer. Anna Zamaraeva is Deputy Editor-in-Chief and served as Wagner Centre spokesperson from 2022 until at least July 2023

Lukovenko

Viktor Lukovenko, also known as Viktor Vasilyev, contributed articles to the portal and founded the African Initiative organisation in Burkina Faso. On 11 July 2024 he announced he had left the project and no longer had any connection with it

Assets

The afrinz.ru portal in Russian, English, French, Spanish and Arabic, with Telegram channels in six languages and accounts on Facebook, VK, Rutube and TikTok. The June 2025 joint report documented six official Telegram channels and several further accounts

Ouagadougou

A Russian-Burkinabe organisation using the same name and a similar logo was established on 7 November 2023, seven weeks after the Moscow outlet. Legally distinct but operationally linked, it organises sporting, cultural, educational and media activities and distributes aligned content

Funding

Accounts are filed but do not disclose income sources. The corporate record lists the company as a recent recipient of government support without stating form or amount, and the UK describes the agency as funded by Russia. Predominant state funding cannot be demonstrated from published data

AI-generated material was documented within a likely subcontracted operation known as AI-Freak, associated with the wider network. Direct use in African Initiative’s own editorial output was not established, and that distinction is preserved

Sources: Russian registry-derived corporate data for OOO Initsiativa-23; Council of the European Union designation, 16 December 2024; United Kingdom designation, 18 July 2025; joint Viginum, FCDO and EEAS technical report, June 2025; African Initiative published output; Law on Mass Media, Articles 1, 3, 18 and 19; Federal Law No. 243-FZ, Article 9; Reporters Without Borders 2026. Classification per the State Media Matrix.

Typology trajectory — African Initiative

Russia · 2024–2026

2024

CaPu

2025

CaPu

2026

CaPr

African Initiative moves from Captured Public to Captured Private in 2026. The agency launched in September 2023, so the series begins at 2024. The change reflects the ownership evidence applied, not a change in the operation.

Private ownership, documented state direction

The ownership

OOO Initsiativa-23, registered in Moscow on 21 September 2023 with charter capital of RUB 10,000. Sergei Anatolyevich Volkov is sole founder and 100 per cent owner, and the registered ownership form is private. No government shareholding or formally state-appointed board was identified.

The direction

The EU Council identifies the company’s General Director and Editor-in-Chief, Artem Kureev, as an officer of the Federal Security Service. The June 2025 Viginum, FCDO and EEAS assessment concluded the operation’s activities were likely directed by the Russian state apparatus and its intelligence services.

Private ownership combined with documented state-linked direction of editorial output is the Captured Private Media model. The European Union designated the entity on 16 December 2024, and the United Kingdom designated the entity along with Kureev, Zamaraeva and Lukovenko on 18 July 2025.

What the June 2025 report documented

Coordinated online and offline activity, including local organisations, journalist and influencer recruitment, covert digital distribution and campaigns targeting Western public-health programmes, alongside six official Telegram channels and further social accounts.

What was not established

Direct use of artificial intelligence in African Initiative’s own editorial output. AI-generated material was documented within a likely subcontracted operation known as AI-Freak, associated with the wider network, and that distinction is preserved.

Ownership

Private, 100 per cent

Editorial

Intelligence-directed

Funding

Sources undisclosed

Registry data record revenue of RUB 44.88 million in 2024 with a net loss of RUB 4.585 million, rising to RUB 150.999 million in 2025 with net profit of RUB 83.111 million, across 26 employees. The corporate record lists the company as a recent recipient of government support without identifying its form or amount, and the United Kingdom describes the agency as established and funded by Russia. The filed accounts do not separate state, state-linked and commercial income, so predominant state funding cannot be demonstrated from published data.

Sources: Russian registry-derived corporate data; Council of the European Union, 16 December 2024; United Kingdom designation, 18 July 2025; joint Viginum, FCDO and EEAS technical report, June 2025. CaPr = Captured Private Media, CaPu = Captured Public or State Managed/Owned Media, per the State Media Matrix.

African Initiative is a Moscow-based news agency launched in September 2023 and targeting audiences in Africa. It presents itself as building an information bridge between Russia and Africa. Western governments have characterised it as a state-linked influence operation with identified ties to Russian intelligence services and to Africa Corps, the successor to the Wagner Group. It was established by Artem Kureev, who serves as its Editor-in-Chief.

Media assets

News agency: African Initiative, operating multilingual websites

The operation also extends to on-the-ground networks, events across Africa, sponsored trips for African journalists to Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, and cultural and gaming projects including the African Dawn video game modification.

A separate entity should be distinguished. The African Initiative Association was established in Burkina Faso in November 2023, some months after the media outlet, and organises events on the continent. It is a distinct structure from the Moscow news agency.

Ownership and governance

The agency was founded in September 2023 by Artem Kureev, whom the European Union and United Kingdom link to the Federal Security Service. Kureev is the outlet’s Editor-in-Chief. Anna Zamareyeva is Deputy Editor-in-Chief and previously served as a spokesperson for the Wagner Group.

Viktor Lukovenko, also known as Viktor Vasiliev, served as liaison officer for African Initiative’s local offices and contributed articles. Open-source investigations link him to the GRU, with the Viginum report describing his alleged recruitment by a psychological operations specialist and deployment to Ukraine in 2022. He announced his departure from the company on his Telegram channel in July 2024 and moved to a comparable project concerning Central Asia. He is separately the founder of the African Initiative Association in Burkina Faso.

Some accounts describe Lukovenko as head of the agency and others as a liaison officer who has since left.

The organisation’s management structure is otherwise opaque. The joint technical report published on 12 June 2025 by Viginum, the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the European External Action Service links the leadership to Russian intelligence services.

Source of funding and budget

African Initiative does not publish financial reports.

The company operating the agency reported revenue of RUB 44.9 million and a net loss of RUB 4.1 million in 2024, according to data collected by the Media and Journalism Research Center.

French and European Union assessments describe the organisation as benefiting from Russian state-linked financial and logistical support, replacing Wagner’s previous funding pipelines. That support is said to cover multilingual websites, sponsored journalist trips to occupied Ukrainian territories and public events across Africa.

Editorial independence

African Initiative’s agenda follows Russian foreign policy priorities in Africa. Its documented activities include coordinated disinformation campaigns, propaganda trips to occupied Ukrainian regions and amplification of anti-Western rhetoric.

The joint Viginum, FCDO and EEAS assessment describes the outlet as a front for coordinated information manipulation and interference rather than a journalistic organisation. The European External Action Service records that it operates through on-the-ground networks and covert digital tactics, including fictitious news sites and inauthentic social media accounts, while remaining under the control of Russian intelligence agencies.

On 16 December 2024 the European Union sanctioned African Initiative as an entity, together with Artem Kureev, for coordinated disinformation campaigns in Europe and Africa. The Council found that Kureev organises the dissemination of articles in Russian and their English translations on proxy websites and makes payments for the publication of pro-Russian articles.

The European Union has also listed Viktor Lukovenko, Mikhail Prudnikov, Justin Blaise Tagouh of Afrique Média TV, Sylvain Afoua and, on 26 June 2025, Nathalie Yamb.

In July 2025 the United Kingdom sanctioned Lukovenko, Kureev and Zamareyeva for their roles in the agency, describing it as an interference agency and citing the hybridity of Russian operations and their expansion beyond Europe.

AI and digital policy

The European External Action Service records that Russian information operations directed at Africa employ AI-generated content alongside manipulation of online platforms. State Media Monitor could not establish the extent of artificial intelligence use specifically within African Initiative’s own output, or identify any published policy governing verification, provenance or disclosure.

Classification rationale

African Initiative has been reclassified from Captured Public or State Managed/Owned Media (CaPu) to the Captured Private Media (CaPr) model.

The ownership condition is not established on the evidence available. The agency is operated by a company reporting commercial revenue of RUB 44.9 million in 2024, and no state shareholding or politically appointed governing board was identified. Its control runs through Russian intelligence services rather than through state ownership. Private ownership combined with documented state-linked control is the Captured Private Media (CaPr) model.

The control condition is unusually well evidenced. Unlike other entries where a state-linked controller could not be identified, here the European Union has sanctioned the entity itself, three of its senior figures are designated by the United Kingdom, and a joint assessment by three Western government agencies documents intelligence direction. If any entry meets the CaPr control test, this one does.

The funding condition is not established. Interview and intelligence assessments describe state-linked financial and logistical support, but its source, mechanism, scale and share of income are unknown, and the company reports commercial revenue.

Its editorial character is not in dispute. The outlet is assessed by three Western government agencies as a front for coordinated information manipulation rather than a journalistic organisation.

September 2026