Soup 219, August 20, 2023
DD Geopolitics and Ghana Rally
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an attempt to create a pro-Kremlin fifth column in Ghana, Africa. This attempt was done by two prominent propagandists, @DD_Geopolitics (DDG) and Simeon “AussieCossack” Boikov.
This research was conducted by the Unintelligence Agency.
This research was conducted by the Unintelligence Agency.
Recently, Niger became another African country where the army seized control of the government and ditched the remnants of the French colonialism. Before this, the same had happened in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, and Chad, all former French colonies.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with getting rid of old colonial powers, but one should remember that all this was done with strong presence of pro-Kremlin powers like PMC Wagner. They’ve been accused of executing and raping civilians in Mali, and many of the new military…
…leaders have hailed Russia as their strategic allies. As I have written before, Russian media networks RT and Sputnik have strong presence in Africa, and there are no real alternatives to their narratives:
In Mali you can listen to news on Sputnik Afrique every night. The leaked US intelligence documents revealed that Russia is planning a propaganda campaign to "realign" public opinion in Africa towards Russia & so far almost nobody in the West has paid any attention to this.
— Pekka Kallioniemi (@P_Kallioniemi) April 26, 2023
pic.twitter.com/FHUTcCYo5M
Therefore it’s difficult to imagine these uprisings being grassroots events, rather than coup d’États with strong support coming from Russia.And apparently, the next country they’ll try to “flip” is Ghana. In August 2023, a ridiculous ad for “West African Freedom Rally” surfaced.
Soon after, both DD Geopolitics and Boikov started promoting the rally, claiming that they’d send “food, water, and clothing” to the event, and that they’d also, for some weird reason, send Russian flags to this grassroots “freedom rally”.
.@DD_Geopolitics is just a rebranding of the Donbass Devushka, an English-speaking, pro-Kremlin network that was exposed in April 2023. The leader of the network turned out to be Jersey girl and LARPer Sarah Bils. This network now has administrators from over 10 countries.
The other organizer, Simeon Boikov is a pro-Kremlin mouthpiece who is cowardly hiding in the Russian consulate in Sydney, after he pushed an elderly man down the stairs. Boikov has been responsible for organizing several pro-Russian demonstrations in Australia.
Soon after Boikov’s contribution, Bils started asking for donations to their PayPal. She claimed that she’d use her ad share revenue from X to fund the rally, and that she doesn’t actually use PayPal for anything even though the DDG donation link goes to straight to PayPal.
During the same Twitter Spaces event, they introduced their contact in Ghana, a man named Michael Asiedu. Boikov declares that they’ve sent “hundreds, hundreds and hundreds of [Russian] flags” to Michael, and that the Soviet Peace Fund is very interested in their project.
Michael says that he’s representing TNT Radio (Boikov’s channel) and DDG, and that he’s organizing the rally on the ground. But the rally is already facing problems — the police had contacted Michael, saying that the rally didn’t align with Ghana’s politics towards Russia.
The group was also planning to burn the French flag, dance with the Russian flags and if needed, “beat the police and military”.
Boikov claims that Michael is backed by “Russia, Wagner, by him personally”.
Boikov claims that Michael is backed by “Russia, Wagner, by him personally”.
Eventually, Bils gets frustrated over the “boys fighting”, has a total breakdown and leaves the event. It seems that planning a coup in foreign countries is hard work and can stress out even the best of us.
Boikov’s claims were later challenged by another man, who said that Boikov and DDG can’t guarantee Asiedu’s safety and that they might get arrested for the event as they had been warned beforehand by the police.
She also seemed to have difficulties to decide whether the event was a political rally or a charity event where DDG fed a thousand hungry Africans.I mean, they could’ve just spent the money on food rather than on useless Russian flags that’ll probably be outdated soon, anyway.15/20
Then, on 13 August 2023, the rally happens. Naturally, as with most things organized by DDG, it’s a complete failure as only around 20 people turn up. DDG account quickly explains that it’s not actually the main event, but people mock the rally for the lousy turn up.
Even though Boikov stated that Michael and his crew were under protection, they were eventually allegedly arrested by the Ghanaian authorities.
But as always, both Bils and Boikov seem to have no interest in actually protecting these people they use as pawns.
But as always, both Bils and Boikov seem to have no interest in actually protecting these people they use as pawns.
When it comes to the money, some transactions were allegedly made to fund the rally. Bils declared that DDG bought 200 Russian flags for the rally, but these were actually bought by Boikov. There is also discrepancy between what DDG claims to have sponsored and the…
…prices of the items, but we’ll let the authorities sort that out. Many states in the US also have laws regulating the solicitation of funds for charitable purposes, but I’m sure the DDG posse has all this figured out.
To conclude: Many pro-Kremlin actors are instigating violence and unrest in African countries, and some of these campaigns have led to actual coups. The example shown here was a farcical show, but it outlines the strategies these actors often use.