The secret bunch who pay attention to Africa. It's not exactly shouted from the rooftops in western countries as public opinion is not quite as favorable towards colonialism and patronage as they were 100+ years ago.
I'm more interested to know how this secret bunch of people links all that to arrest of Telegram's CEO (who is a French citizen) in France. Sounds like a regular conspiracy theory and claims like "we all know..." just give more of the same conspiracy vibe.
Yeah, I highly doubt Russian soldiers/mercenaries using Telegram is the main reason France went after Durov, but the conflicts and influence wars between Russia and colonialist powers in Africa is well-known and has been happening for a while.
The conflicts and influence wars between Russia and colonialist powers in Africa is well-known and has been happening for a while.
That the conflicts are well-known and have been happening for a while is quite true of course.
But this bizarre framing of these conflicts as "between Russia and colonialist powers" (as if Russia was not also a colonial power, or its influence games in Africa were any different from those of the Western powers) is just propaganda, and rather trite propaganda at that.
Russia is not a colonial power though. The empire and later the USSR conquered a lot of land, but that was contiguous. Even if you try to argue that all imperial and Soviet expansion was colonial, Russia never colonized Africa and can't be considered a colonial power there.
Russia is also providing economic and political support to many African governments, especially those who have turned away from the west and are afraid of regime-change operations.