Russia’s Influence Campaign in Africa Targets a U.S. Ally

KAMPALA, Uganda—President Biden’s summit with African leaders is part of a U.S. push to gain influence across the continent. A sign of the challenge came earlier this year in Uganda, a longtime U.S. ally that has been drawn deeper into Russia’s orbit.

In a meeting at Uganda’s defense ministry shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian ambassador Vladlen Semivolos and the embassy’s head of ideology, Evgeny Kalashnikov, told some top officials of President Yoweri Museveni’s government that Western media, a key source of foreign news in the country, portrayed Russia’s actions too negatively, according to Ugandan officials present in the meeting.