BANNER: Profile photo for African Dawn’s VK page. (Source: vk.com/africandawn)

Russian online news service African Initiative collaborated with Russian streamer Grish Putin to promote African Dawn, a modification of the popular video game Hearts of Iron IV, to gamers in Africa. The modified game revolves around the military-led trio of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, taking advantage of their current strained relations with France. The news agency and streamer released the game in July 2024 and held an event to promote it at African Initiative’s Burkina Faso office.

Video games have been used for various purposes other than entertainment, becoming a tool for political messaging and propaganda to influence public opinion. While the use of video games for propaganda is not new, the use of a game focused on Africa to specifically promote Russian propaganda among younger audiences in the region represents a new approach. This is especially noteworthy as the African gaming market is witnessing rapid growth in mobile gaming. The Democracy + Tech Initiative examined the role of trust and safety operations in the gaming world in its report Scaling Trust on the Web.

Behind the expansion in propaganda efforts is the African Initiative, a Russian online news service located in Moscow, covering “events on the African continent” and focused on what they described as “the neo-colonial legacy that African countries have been struggling with for decades.” An investigation by the African Digital Democracy Observatory (ADDO) revealed that African Initiative’s employees include individuals previously associated with the Wagner Group.

The ADDO notes African Initiatives’ complex web of connections and potential influence strategies and states that “the organization’s significant social media presence, particularly on Telegram, shows its efforts to disseminate information.” The news service uses its website as its primary publication medium, publishing articles in English, French, Russian, and Arabic. It also promotes its articles using Telegram, VKontakte, and RUTUBE. The DFRLab also found accounts on Facebook and X that may be connected to the news service as they amplify African Initiative content.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian players used video games to spread Kremlin propaganda in games such as Minecraft, World of Tanks, and Roblox. One Russian streamer who openly promoted Russian propaganda using video games was Grigory Korolev, known in the gaming world as Grisha Putin. He first garnered an online audience on the livestreaming platform Twitch. playing the popular strategy game Hearts of Iron IV (Hoi4). Grisha Putin grabbed attention when he used Hoi4 as a propaganda tool to spread pro-Russia content in February 2022, uploading a video on YouTube titled “How to Conquer UKRAINE As RUSSIA In Hoi4 (GUIDE).” The video was uploaded one day before Russia invaded Ukraine. Twitch banned Grisha Putin’s account.

Grish Putin appeared again in February 2023, streaming a four-hour game of Hearts of Iron IV on the Russian social media platform VKontakte from the headquarters of the Wagner Group while dressed in full Russian military gear. He played a game in which Russian and NATO forces were at war. He later streamed two more times from the Wagner Centre.

Grisha Putin is now leading a group of pro-Russia gamers and individuals named Z Shaker Central. The group is “committed to supporting the Russian army/people, combating Western disinformation, and fostering debates and discussions on geopolitics.” The group also collects donations for “Humanitarian Aid to Russian Soldiers” using Telegram and the social platform Discord.

Hearts of Iron IV is a popular strategy game involving World War II simulation battles. Modifications of the game (mods), created by players, allow for the creation of new scenarios where players can experience an “alternative history.” After announcing a partnership in February 2024, Grisha Putin, Z Shaker Central, and the African Initiative released an African-themed mod for Hearts of Iron IV, named African Dawn.

The game was released on July 12, 2024, on the video game platform Steam as per a post on VK by a page created for the game on June 2, 2024. A website for the game (https://africandawn.ru) was also launched in late July or early August after its domain was registered on July 24, 2024.

Hoi4’s publisher removed the African Dawn game from the platform, according to the game’s website. A separate launcher was created for African Dawn, available on the game’s website, that allows users to install and update the modification and launch the game, in addition to a public repository on GitHub. The game also continues to appear on Steam despite efforts to remove it.

On July 21, 2024, Grisha Putin was in Burkina Faso as the African Initiative reported on an event hosted at the news service’s office where the streamer was photographed presenting the African Dawn game to youth and diplomats. Grisha Putin also posted on X about his visit to Burkina Faso showing pictures of him reportedly playing the game with Vital Placid Simpore, the cultural and public relations attaché of the Burkina Faso Embassy in Russia.

African Initiative published several articles promoting African Dawn in English, French, Russian, and Arabic, as well as promotional posts on Telegram, VK, and RUTUBE.

Both the game’s website and VK page demonstrate that the aim of the game is to promote pro-Russian and anti-Western narratives. According to the game’s website, events in the game start with the September 2022 coup in Burkina Faso. Players then try to “eradicate terrorism in the Sahel,” and after defeating terrorists, a “cold war” starts between the Alliance of Sahel States (ASS) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) leading to the “Great African War,” which the game says will solve the region’s problems. The ASS is a security pact between Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. ECOWAS is a union of fifteen West African nations, including Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.

The VK page described African Dawn as a new chapter in the history of Africa that players can write, and an opportunity to learn about the history and culture of the continent. In the game, players are in a world where two military forces compete on the continent, a Pan-Africanist movement trying to create a new future for the continent, and neo-colonial forces trying to maintain their influence. However, according to a report about African Dawn on the game and African initiative’s website, if a player chooses to take charge of an African country, they receive “military-technical and economic support from Russia” and its African Corps, a replacement for the Wagner Group in the continent.

Several screenshots posted on VK by the game’s official page show snippets of news articles that appear in the game, with the articles resembling the style of articles published by African Initiative. It is unclear whether these were actual articles or ones created for the game using African Initiative’s branding given that they are sponsoring the game. For example, one post shows a screenshot of the game displaying an African Initiative article about Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane crash. The article appears to only exist in the game as it is not on the African Initiative website.

The game’s trailer was published on African Initiative’s RUTUBE channel on July 5 and on the game’s VK page on July 6. It specifically focused on the deteriorating relations between France and countries such as Burkina Faso and Niger, showing footage of protests against France in Niger and images of President Emmanuel Macron and African leaders such as Burkina Faso’s Captain Ibrahim Traoré.

The trailer also promoted the ASS stating that the security pact is closely linked to Russia and African Corps as it showed clips of what appear to be Russian fighters and fighter pilots.

It does not appear that the modified game received widespread reach on social media platforms, however, several reviews and streams of the game, along with its trailer, appeared on YouTube shortly after the launch. Additionally, a Discord server created for the game garnered over 600 members. It is difficult to ascertain, however, the intention behind these videos and Discord joins and whether these are genuine content creators and streamers who play Hoi4.

“Russia uses video games in Africa to spread anti-Western propaganda,” Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), August 12, 2024, https://dfrlab.org/2024/08/06/russia-uses-video-games-in-africa-to-spread-anti-western-propaganda/.