No doubt that Russia wishes to expand its influence in Africa. Why wouldn't it? The article contains a lot of supposition. Now some considerations to keep a cool head.

- There is no evidence that Wagner or other PMCs are present in either Niger or Gabon.

- Gabon is too recent to comment but my reading of the events in Niger indicate a good amount of organic, popular support for the military putschists. We need to critically analyse the western perspective describing military officers brushing aside democratically elected leaders: these leaders -- purportedly pure products of vibrant, post-independence Africa -- tend to map fairly well to western political and economic interests. When this is not the case, yet the leader manages to hold on to power, well... he stops being invited to the Francophone or Commonwealth games.

- These events are unfortunately always accompanied by violence but the winners and the losers often follow ethnic affiliation. Example: president X is France's 'guy', he is a member of the people Y and people Y support him. People Y and people Z share the territory, albeit unhappily. Regions inhabited by people Y tend to receive the lion's share of investment. Until a putsch happens that is supported by people Z. President X as well as his people Y receive a proper beating from the putschists and people Z.

- If the Russia MFA is sponsoring 'spontaneous demonstrations of enthusiasm', I can not say. What I know is that the National Endowment for Democracy, essentially an arm of the CIA, is quite active along these lines in other theatres. I'd be surprised if the Russians didn't have similar methods at their disposal. (Although the official line is that they don't directly intervene in the politics of sovereign countries, we don't live in the world of the care bears.)

- The interdiction of western media like France 24 and RFI is unfortunate, like any censorship. But those are state funded outlets that report from a western perspective. The interdiction of RT and Sputnik in many western countries has surely set a precedent that it's okay to silence another perspective. (I hate these comparisons of the sort 'but look what the OTHER GUY does'. However, as a neutral party, it is very hard to criticize one without criticizing the other.)

- The Soviet Union had a long history of university cooperation with Africa. Here's a quick introduction. https://journals.openedition.org/etudesafricaines/20664 Not much happened in the two decades following the dissolution of the USSR. The renewal of these programs is a quick win for Russia and it follows that many in Africa have a positive view of Russia because of this historical cooperation.

- Western economic exploitation of Africa is not really a controversial subject. Mining operations and the CFA franc are the tip of the iceberg. There seems to be a good amount of popular support in some parts of Africa for countries like Russia and China that (a) promote an alternative model of cooperation and (b) propose investment with less political strings attached than western offers. And the relative absence of colonial history between Africa and Russia or China fosters rapprochement between the two. In many cases, they may not need to pay some group in Africa to wave Russian flags.