Alpha-Dialogue Establishes African Media Training Platform -By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh

Empowering senior African media executives, raising their orientation towards geopolitical developments and learning more innovative skills of disseminating information to the public audience are the main components of the first short-term training programme planned in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It also aims at creating a broad platform for consolidating interaction between Russian and African media outlets, and most importantly, for forging new connections.

The orientation programme titled, “Russia – Africa: The Way of Friendship and Cooperation” – for senior editors in the state and private media organizations across Africa, organized and launched by Alpha-Dialogue, St. Petersburg-based NGO with a focus on education and culture, in collaborating with the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund and overwhelmingly supported by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

It partners with the Association of Economic Cooperation with African States (AECAS). As the name implies, AECAS is a corporate business NGO structure created after the first Russia-Africa summit (October 2019) for the development of economic ties between Russia and Africa. Alpha-Dialogue’s official website indicates that it closely work in partnership with Rossotrudnichestvo which is a Russian government agency for foreign aid and cultural exchange in the former Soviet republics and foreign countries.

With more than 70 participants expected from Russia and nine African countries, the two-day intensive programme focuses on more than 10 analytical reports, for the media representatives from Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and other African countries.

According to programme, an Analytical Reports: “The Image of Russia in African Media — The Image of African Countries in Russian Media” and “Media of Russia and Africa: Pathways of Interaction, Topics, Resources” will be discussed by the participants, while the Master Class: “Contemporary Journalism: Challenges and Solutions” and “Combating Disinformation and Promoting Accurate Reporting” will also be conducted by experienced professionals and thought leaders from Russia and Africa, offering diverse insights and perspectives on the evolving media landscape. In addition, there will also be a series of open online lectures for a broad audience! The purpose of these sessions is foster a deeper understanding of the multifaceted cooperation between Russia and Africa.

The media initiative came up as a follow up to summit panel discussions about rolling out a comprehensive strategic roadmap for a more integrated cooperation and to find effective ways of improving public diplomacy in Africa. The panel discussions noted that the consolidation of versatile ties with the Sub-Saharan African countries remains a major part of Russia’s foreign policy strategy, which is acquiring special significance in the context of tremendous changes in the global arena.

One official document made available on MFA website, titled “Concept of the Russian Federation on Cooperation with African Media” stresses the need to cooperate with African media as Russia looks forward to strengthening relations and share strategic interests with Africa on international arena.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs supports the Alpha-Dialogue’s pilot programme organized for the African media group in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The participants from this pilot programme will be at the forefront to highlight Russia’s economic and cultural aspirations, shape the African perception about Russia and, of course, raise Russia’s image and reputation among the political and business community, and the general public in Africa.

Since the two Russia-Africa summits, this is one more symbolic steps on media cooperation by St. Petersburg-based NGO, Alpha-Dialogue, to bridge the media gap with its inherent geopolitical implications, to boost the soft power to an appreciable level and to ultimately strengthen bilateral relations between Africa and Russia. In this context, Russia should use media platforms to advance its interests, creating a positive image through media diplomacy.

For decades, Russia’s media influence in Africa, despite recent efforts to establish its presence, still remains marginal. In the face of the current heightening geopolitical situation, there is the need to create new credible platforms for African-Russian interaction. The stark reality until today is there are no accredited African media in Russia. While Russia criticizes Western media’s impactful influence in Africa, it faces its own significant media challenges in the continent. Arguably, the Western-media has hooked Africa’s elite class estimated at 380 million, twice the total population in the Russian Federation.

Several comprehensive interviews taken for this article indicated that Russia’s information presence in the African media environment could additionally be achieved by accrediting African media in the Russian Federation. Certainly, this may require facilitating the rules and regulations, some kinds of support for creating information content, awareness and educational policies to inform the African public. The lack of information both ways, to a large degree, hinders bridging Russia and Africa, – while Western media have long been working to promote their agenda across continent.

The reality is that media partnership is essential at this crucial time, especially after the resonating first summit (October 2019) and highly-praised second summit (July 2023). In order to overcome the existing challenges, at the high-level roundtable discussions held on 6th March 2025, the State Duma, the lower chamber of legislators, recommended diverse forms of support for NGOs, such as Alpha-Dialogue, to compliment official efforts toward building a more collaborative media landscape. It has also emerged from the roundtable discussions that not a single African media is accredited in Moscow. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, therefore, has to consider seriously accreditation for a few African media executives to work in the Russian Federation.

In this round-up conclusion, taking these innovative measures, mentioned earlier in this article, will strengthen Russian-African bilateral relations, reframe the development narratives through objective reporting and build the capacity of media in promoting Africa’s socioeconomic trends and growth under the continental Agenda 2063.

*Kestér Kenn Klomegâh is a frequent and passionate contributor. During his professional career as a researcher specialising in Russia-Africa policy and BRICS, he has been detained and questioned several times by Russian federal security services for reporting facts. Most of his well-resourced articles are reprinted in a number of reputable foreign media.