The US Manipulated Alt-Media Into Waging Its Infowar On Russia In Africa By Smearing Wagner

By “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” upon smearing all of Wagner as Western regime change agents after emotionally overreacting to the Mainstream Media’s reports about American intelligence’s knowledge of Prigozhin’s coup plans, the Alt-Media Community fell into the trap of extending credence to their enemies’ scaremongering campaign against that group’s activities in Africa.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin violated the Russian Constitution by launching an ultimately failed coup over the weekend, which resulted in him and his collaborators being exiled to Belarus after President Putin mercifully gave them a final chance to save their lives. He went rogue for purely personal reasons related to his own political ambitions, which were driven by delusions of grandeur partially stemming from the leading role that Wagner played in the Battle of Artyomovsk.

Nevertheless, a lot of folks in the Alt-Media Community (AMC) were manipulated by the US into falling for the false narrative alleging that he and his entire group were Western regime change agents after the Mainstream Media (MSM) revealed that American intelligence knew about his coup plans in advance. The latter also reported that the US delayed imposing new sanctions on Wagner for fear of siding with President Putin, which reinforced this artificially manufactured perception in the minds of many.

Top AMC influencers subsequently ran with this story to speculate that this supposedly means that the group was totally compromised by American intelligence, which inadvertently resulted in them waging the US’ infowar on Russia in Africa better than the CIA itself could ever hope to do. By condemning all of Wagner for the crimes of its leader and his collaborators, they risk inflicting immense reputational damage on this multipolar Great Power’s “Democratic Security” strategy towards the continent.

“Russia’s Newfound Appeal To African Countries Is Actually Quite Easy To Explain”, and it’s that Moscow nowadays heavily relies on Wagner to defend its partners’ national models of democracy from (largely Western-emanating) Hybrid War threats to their sovereignty. This policy of “regime reinforcement” counteracts its New Cold War rivals’ polar opposite one of regime change, and its effectiveness has been proven beyond any doubt in the Central African Republic and most recently Mali.

Those two geostrategically positioned countries were written off by most of the world as irredeemably failed states until Wagner’s “Democratic Security” operations succeeded against the seemingly insurmountable odds in restoring their security and sovereignty. So successful has this approach been in stopping the West’s hitherto unimpeded spree of civil wars and regime changes across the continent that the US and France started cooperating against Wagner in Africa.

Axios revealed last October that France’s “effort to counter Russian mercenaries” will inordinately rely on waging infowars against that group, while Politico informed their readers early last month that the US will attempt to do the same. This has already taken the form of them falsely claiming that Wagner is responsible for the Sudanese Crisis and is allegedly plotting to overthrow the neighboring Chadian government, both of which have no basis in reality but serve to scaremonger about this group.

It's with this infowar context in mind that observers can better understand how masterfully the MSM manipulated the AMC into doing their bidding against Russia in Africa. By “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” upon smearing all of Wagner as Western regime change agents after emotionally overreacting to the MSM’s reports about American intelligence’s knowledge of Prigozhin’s coup plans, the AMC fell into the trap of extending credence to their enemies’ scaremongering campaign.

Many Africans are already skeptical of the MSM’s accusations against that group, but they might now wonder whether there’s perhaps something to them after top AMC influencers who they’ve come to respect recklessly claimed that these fighters can’t be trusted after Prigozhin’s ultimately failed coup. They could easily be confused by these complementary narratives coming from opposing media camps into thinking that they must imply some truth otherwise they both wouldn’t throw shade on that group.

Those who are leaning in that direction should be made aware of the recent words from Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee Andrey Kartapolov. He confirmed that efforts are underway to regulate private military companies in the country, but advised against banning Wagner. He refused to blame all of them for the crimes of their leader and added that “to take them and disarm and disperse them - you can’t imagine a better gift for NATO and Ukrainians. You don't have to do it.”

If there were any legitimate grounds for believing that all of Wagner was compromised by American intelligence like some top AMC influencers nowadays claim, then there’s no way that this senior political official would ever advise against banning them. While it’s up to Russia’s security services to determine the extent to which enemy agencies meddled in last weekend’s events, and it’s possible that they might uncover some shocking information, Kartapolov’s advice is reasonable given what’s known thus far.

Furthermore, President Putin himself strongly suggested during his national address on Saturday morning that Wagner as a whole shouldn’t be blamed for Prigozhin’s treason. He explicitly said that “I am also addressing those who were dragged into this criminal adventure through deceit or threats”, after which he described them as “The heroes who liberated Soledar and Artyomovsk, towns and villages in Donbass, fought and gave their lives for Novorossiya and the unity of the Russian world.”

The Russian leader’s claim that Prigozhin’s treason amounted to a “knife in the back” paraphrased what the FSB said earlier that morning in calling his armed rebellion a “stab in the back”, which showed that President Putin was relying on guidance from his colleagues in the security service that he used to lead. Had they had any reason at that time to consider that Wagner was completely compromised by American intelligence, then they’d have obviously advised him against praising the group’s heroism.

Those top AMC influencers who claim otherwise were manipulated by the MSM into doing the US’ infowar bidding and likely have no idea about what President Putin and Kartapolov publicly said about Wagner. They inadvertently misled legions and must therefore set the record straight as soon as possible lest questions naturally arise about their intentions if they refuse to do so after being informed of these two official statements whose importance is impossible to deny.

Anyone who’s still reluctant to acknowledge that respected AMC influencers misled them should simply ask themselves whether these armchair commentators from halfway across the world really know more about Wagner than the FSB, Kartapolov, and President Putin. No honest person would take the words of the former over those of the latter. This painful reckoning is urgently required in order for the AMC to stop functioning as the US’ “useful idiots” in waging its infowar on Russia in Africa.