In 2024, Russian operatives actively worked to align Chad with Moscow and distance the country from Western influence, according to internal documents reviewed by an international media consortium. The documents, part of the investigative series “Propaganda Machine, “reveal efforts to forge connections with Chadian authorities, disseminate anti-Western narratives, and target opposition figure Succès Masra during a pivotal election year. The consortium, which included The Continent and Forbidden Stories, with RFI among the participants, found the documents within Africa Politology, a Russian influence network established by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group, and later taken over by the Russian state.
On September 21, 2024, a gathering at a two-storey house in N’Djamena’s Farcha district marked the official opening of the Russian House in Chad. The cultural project was supported by Rossotrudnichestvo, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s international cooperation and scholarships agency. The event, attended by Chadian press members, featured “canapés and music by Tchaikovsky, “recalled RFI correspondent Carol Valade.
However, security agents from Chad’s National Agency for State Security were discreetly filming from above. Among the guests were Andrei Denisovich and Evgeny Tsarev, presented as representatives of the Russian cultural network. Tsarev, known locally as “Eugène, “led most of the conversations and had been active in Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Sahel since 2021, supporting Russian-linked operations.
Following the ceremony, Chadian soldiers arrested Denisovich and Tsarev. Two days prior, on September 19, two other Russian operatives, Maxym Shugaley and Samir Seyfan, were detained upon arrival at N’Djamena airport. Shugaley, a Wagner-linked information network veteran, had visited Chad multiple times in 2024.
He and Seyfan posed as investors and sought meetings with officials ahead of the May 6 presidential election. Shugaley documented meetings, including one with Hilal Abdelkader Abdramane, treasurer of Nouvelle Génération, a group supporting President Mahamat Idriss Déby.
Source: [The Continent, Forbidden Stories, RFI]
