Kateryna Tikhonova, the youngest daughter of the Kremlin dictator and war criminal Vladimir Putin, is helping the Kremlin expand its influence on African countries with the help of a digital development strategy.
How daughter helps the Kremlin dictator to spread his influence in Africa
According to the journalists of the publication, the Kremlin has invited representatives of about 30 African countries to the meeting in Moscow, which will be held next month.
It is noted that within the framework of the meeting, representatives of African countries will be offered the services of Russian IT specialists and investors.
The project is supported by the "Innopraktika" centre, affiliated with the National Intellectual Development Fund, whose general director is Putin’s youngest daughter.
To counter the impact of sanctions imposed on Russia by the U.S., the E.U. and other countries for the Kremlin's criminal war against Ukraine, Kremlin dictator Putin is seeking closer ties with the countries of the global south.
The article notes that if Russia succeeds in promoting its digital expertise in cyber security, public services, and electronic voting, it can gain an advantage over the U.S., China, and the E.U. in the struggle to expand its influence among African countries.
The meeting of African officials in Russia is part of an informational and educational project called the "Knowledge Exchange Program in the Field of Electronic Management", which the foundation launched in July with the Moscow Higher School of Economics.
What is known about Putin'syoungest daughter
It is noted that the Kremlin dictator carefully guards the personal life of 37-year-old Tikhonova and her older sister Maria Vorontsova, a 38-year-old endocrinologist, and has never publicly recognized them as his children.
The United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on both women last April over PPutin'swar in Ukraine.
The U.S. Treasury Department said Tikhonova's work supports the Russian defense industry. At the same time, Vorontsova "runs state-sponsored programs that have received billions of dollars from the Kremlin in genetic research and are under Putin's personal control".
"Innopraktika", board of trustees, includes the heads of many of the most influential Russian state-owned companies closely associated with Putin, including Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, VTB Bank CEO Andriy Kostin, Gazprom CEO Oleksiy Miller, and CEO of Arms conglomerate “Rostech" Sergey Chemezov. The company's website calls itself "an intermediary for representatives of science, business, education and government".
Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group, deployed to several African states recently, have helped the Kremlin regain some of its Soviet-era influence in the resource-rich region, which has been lost since the Cold War.
Russia also began shipments this week to deliver 200,000 tons of free grain to six African countries by the end of the year. Although it's only a tiny fraction of what they consume, the offer, made by Putin in July, followed criticism that Russia's war in Ukraine and the withdrawal from a deal that eases Ukrainian grain exports across the Black Sea are hurting Africans, causing world prices to rise for food and fertilizers.
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