A U.S. news crew went to the Central African Republic to investigate the activities of the powerful Russian-based mercenary group, Wagner. It鈥檚 been implicated in the death of three Russian journalists there and numerous other unsavory activities around the world.
Wagner is also known as 鈥淧utin鈥檚 private army.鈥�
CNN鈥檚 chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, and her team ended up with 聽that Wagner has something it wants to hide.
Soon, Ward and her co-workers discovered they were being trailed by a group they later learned were Russian.
鈥淲e were being followed and filmed by someone surreptitiously, while standing in the hotel with my colleagues 鈥� standing outside the airport. That is unnerving,鈥� Ward told 草莓传媒.
The surveillance created a sobering sense of concern.
鈥淲e were in a small mining town outside of the capital [Bangui]. I don’t think any of us slept very well. Our security guy stayed up throughout the night watching the gates of this tiny motel that we were staying at,鈥� Ward said.
The encounters were absolutely designed to harass and frighten them, but the crew later realized the primary objective was to discredit them.
A 15-minute video turned up on the internet, produced by a company linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a billionaire Russian oligarch and close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prighozhin was sanctioned by the U.S. Justice Department for his role in Moscow鈥檚 meddling campaign during the 2016 presidential election.
The video, Ward said, 鈥渨as filled with lies, which I guess is not surprising, but they had actually managed to find people who claimed that we had bribed them to say bad things about the Russians.鈥�
But in Ward鈥檚 story, it was a Russian saying bad things about the Russians.
His name is 鈥淥leg.鈥� He鈥檚 a former Wagner mercenary, and he sat down with Ward to spill the beans on the company, its connection to the Russian government and Moscow鈥檚 ultimate objective. Asked if Russia is trying to reassert itself as a superpower, he responded, 鈥�100%.鈥�
鈥淲hat he said that stayed with me was, 鈥楻ussia is trying to get the better of the U.S. 鈥� to smash the U.S.,鈥欌�� Ward remembered.
Moscow is no stranger to what鈥檚 commonly called 鈥渄ark public relations.鈥� It鈥檚 the practice of using questionable media tactics and sources to harass and ultimately discredit one鈥檚 rivals. They also deploy trolls to do it. Sometimes, they are used in tandem.
In 2017, at the Marrakesh Security Forum in Morocco, David Pollock, one of D.C.鈥檚 pre-eminent experts on the Middle East, confronted a Russian 鈥渟cholar鈥� who belittled the U.S. military and blamed the U.S. for Africa鈥檚 terrorism issues. Shortly thereafter, Pollock was the victim of a vicious trolling campaign.
Sergey Kostalyanets, a senior research fellow on African Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, took direct aim at the U.S. military鈥檚 Africa Command in front of the entire audience at the conference, saying it undermines Africa鈥檚 ability to find its own solutions to terrorism.
Pollock, the Kaufman fellow at The Washington Institute, took to the podium and systematically dismantled each claim Kostalyanets made, with a fact-based diatribe. Forty-eight hours later, Pollock had returned home only to be hit by a blistering robo-call attack that lasted more than 24 hours straight.
鈥淚t started probably about 7 a.m. and continued many hours after that. I was getting robocalls from Russia in Russian,鈥� he said.
Some of the relentless callers left messages. 鈥淪ometimes, they hung up,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd sometimes, there was just noise after I answered.鈥� For nearly an entire working day, Pollock said, 鈥渢he calls were coming in so fast; I couldn鈥檛 block them or delete them until many hours went by.鈥�
Americans are not the only targets.
Dutch daily newspaper Telegraaf reported for the first time on Aug. 9 that in early 2017 by a nasty telephone harassment campaign. According to the paper, which spoke with Dutch Military Intelligence (MIVD), the pilots called home from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Shortly thereafter, their partners got the harassing phone calls 鈥� suggesting that the pilots鈥� calls were probably intercepted and that their phone numbers and the call destination were captured.
Moscow鈥檚 鈥淒ark PR鈥� campaign activities are a part of what U.S. intelligence officials recognize as a tool of hybrid warfare. That鈥檚 a military strategy that blends political warfare and conventional, irregular and cyber warfare with other elements of influence 鈥� including disinformation, diplomacy and foreign electoral intervention 鈥� to achieve its goals.
Moscow鈥檚 overarching objective appears to be to return to its Cold War-era glory. But corruption, the country鈥檚 economic decline and rising opposition to the Putin regime seem to suggest that is unlikely.
