‘Soft Power’ Sparking Russian Revival in Africa, Say Analysts

Moscow is using arts, education, religion and science as strategic tools to increase influence across Africa.
‘Soft Power’ Sparking Russian Revival in Africa, Say Analysts
The sun sets behind a dome of the Christ the Saviour cathedral, the main Russian Orthodox church, in downtown Moscow on Oct. 25, 2022. Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images
|Updated:
0:00

JOHANNESBURG—In June 2023, Steven Gruzd witnessed a sight he now describes as an “anomaly,” while walking a street in Tanzania’s balmy capital, Dar es Salaam.

“It was a group of Tanzanian clerics wearing the distinctive robes and headdress of the Russian Orthodox Church,” says the academic, who heads the African Governance Program at the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg.