When anti-government protests erupted in Sudan at the end of last year, the government of recently-deposed president Omar al-Bashir began to act on proposals that involved spreading misinformation on social media, blaming Israel for fomenting the unrest, and even carrying out public executions to make an example of "looters", according to documents seen by CNN.
The strategy was drawn up by a Russian company tied to an oligarch favored by the Kremlin: Yevgeny Prigozhin. While the documents do not come from official Russian agencies, they were essentially a blueprint for protecting the Kremlin's interests in Sudan and keeping Bashir in power. The documents, which include letters and internal company communications, are among several thousand obtained and investigated by the London-based Dossier Center, run by exiled Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky. They are consistent with the accounts of witnesses who say Russian observers were seen at the recent protests in Sudan.