The United Kingdom's recent sanctions against Russian individuals running affairs in Europe and African countries that it considers spies has turned out to be a blow to Vladimir Putin's information manipulation strategy on the African continent.
The mid-July sanctions by the UK against 'spies running a campaign to destabilize Europe' spread to an online news agency African Initiative, which The Standard reported in July as a platform that Western Europe considers a tool for disinformation pushed by Moscow and now taking root in Africa.
The sanctions extended to the top leaders and founders of the agency Victor Lukovenko, Artyom Kureyev and Anna Zamareyeva.
Lukovenko is linked to Russian Military intelligence (GRU) and is also known as Viktor Vasilyev and was a liaison officer with African Initiative's local offices and produced a number of articles for the African Initiative website.
