# The Kremlin is Cultivating an AI-Trained Global Media Cadre for Lasting Influence
**August 12, 2026**
**Authors:**
* Nataliya Bugayova (Director, Cognitive Warfare Project and Modern Warfare Fellow)
* Jacob Spencer (Cognitive Warfare Researcher)
* Kateryna Stepanenko (Russia Team Lead and Deputy Director of the Cognitive Warfare Project)
* Lucianna Marquez (Contributing Intern)
* Anna Guethoff (Contributing Intern)
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## Key Takeaways
**Key Takeaway:** The Kremlin is growing a global cadre of Russia-trained journalists as part of its cognitive warfare efforts. Russia uses cognitive warfare to shape the decisions and will of its opponents. The Kremlin is expanding state-run international journalism training initiatives, building a global media recruitment pipeline, and expanding training that specifically targets young media professionals abroad. Kremlin-run media is increasingly incorporating AI media training curricula, likely to scale production of content that aligns with Kremlin narratives. The Kremlin’s investment in global media talent is not opportunistic, but rather supports Russia’s strategic aims. The Kremlin uses media training in Africa and Asia to discredit the West, shape global narratives on the war in Ukraine, and obscure the Kremlin’s weaknesses. Russian state media training in the former Soviet states furthers the Kremlin’s aim of reestablishing control over those countries. Russian state media training is also a part of the Kremlin’s occupation playbook in Ukraine and Georgia. The Russian-trained global journalist cadre is key to the resilience of the Kremlin’s cognitive warfare infrastructure, as the cadre operates outside of Russian state structures, allowing it to maintain influence even when Russian media face restrictions.
The Kremlin has been expanding journalism training initiatives, particularly via state-run SputnikPro and RT Academy training programs. Russian state news agency Sputnik established the SputnikPro international journalism education project in March 2018, and the program has reportedly trained over 15,000 participants as of 2026. The Kremlin’s international TV and broadcasting network RT launched the RT Academy English-language journalism training program in February 2024 and claimed that it had trained over 7,000 participants as of August 2026. Kremlin-controlled think tank, the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund (also known as the Gorchakov Fund), established the InteRussia fellowship program for training foreign specialists in multiple fields including journalism in 2021, with funding from the Russian Presidential Grants Foundation. InteRussia partnered with RT’s Arabic service to launch a fellowship for journalists from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, and Sudan in May 2026. InteRussia also partnered with SputnikPro to organize training programs in Moscow for Latin American journalists in September and October 2025 and for African journalists in July 2026. The growth of Russian international journalism training events is coupled with the Kremlin’s effort to expand its network of Russian state media partnerships with foreign outlets — another pillar of Russian cognitive warfare infrastructure that ISW analyzed in an April 2026 report.
The Kremlin seeks to expand the scale, reach, and longevity of Russia’s information influence through its growing journalism training initiatives abroad.
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## Scale and Reach
Russian media has been increasingly incorporating AI training into its global training curricula in 2025 and 2026, likely to scale production of content that aligns with the Kremlin’s narratives via AI content creation and AI-assisted media workflows. SputnikPro and RT Academy increased training of foreign journalists to use AI for content production, streamlining media workflows, and managing social media accounts in 2025 and 2026. SputnikPro and RT Academy conducted at least 50 training events between July 2025 and July 2026, roughly 50 percent of which integrated AI modules. SputnikPro held sessions on using AI for content production and streamlining editorial workflows for New Era University in the Philippines and at the Sputnik Multimedia Press Center in Minsk, Belarus in May 2026; for the University of Tripoli in Libya in February 2026; and for Kenyan television channel Prime Africa Channel in June 2025, among others. RT Academy and RT China held a discussion at the Communication University of Zhejiang in China on the use of neural networks in media workflows in April 2026. Integration of AI may enable Russia-trained journalists to increase content production, spread Kremlin narratives at a greater scale to broader audiences, and more efficiently monitor and respond to global events.
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## Longevity
The Kremlin has been expanding training formats that specifically target the next generation of journalists and influencers globally.
The Kremlin is targeting young foreign journalists by offering them AI media internships and training through Kremlin-run youth and cultural programs.
* *Sputnik partnered with the New Generation (Novoye Pokoleniye) international youth program to launch a SputnikPro internship focused on AI in June 2026, which offered training on using AI to generate text, images, videos, and to conduct data analysis in media production.*
The Russian Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo) founded New Generation in 2011. The program hosts foreigners from the political, civic, scientific, and business sectors for short trips to Russia, which include visits to Russian state media outlets and meetings with Russian state media officials. RT Academy and Rossotrudnichestvo’s Russia House cultural center in Jakarta, Indonesia, held a session on AI for several hundred East Asian youth influencers, journalists, and media students in November and December 2025.
SputnikPro and RT Academy are targeting young journalists by hosting media training events at foreign universities. SputnikPro and RT Academy held at least 14 training events at universities abroad in the first six months of 2026. RT Academy presented a lecture covering how RT creates content at Tsinghua University; a lecture on the role of language skills in journalism at Peking University; a lecture on journalism in a “multipolar world” and the influence of AI on media workflows at Communication University of Zhejiang; and a lecture about coverage of international events at East China Normal University in China in April 2026. SputnikPro held sessions on applications of AI in journalism and the “evolving media landscape” for the University of Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania in June and May 2026; a session on media ethics for the University of Education, Winneba in Ghana in May 2026; a lecture on digital journalism for the Uzbek State World Languages University and Bucheon University Tashkent in Uzbekistan in April 2026; and a lecture on “an effective media strategy in the context of information wars” for the Institut Supérieur de la Communication et du Multimédia in Burkina Faso in April 2026. SputnikPro held trainings on using AI for media content creation for New Era University in the Philippines, Al-Azhar University in the Gaza Strip, Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme et de Communication in Niger, Sana’a University in Yemen, Daffodil International University in Bangladesh, and at the University of Tripoli in Libya between February and May 2026. ISW analyzed Russian state media’s distinct efforts to establish partnerships with foreign universities in its April 2026 publication.
The Kremlin explicitly uses its media trainings in other countries to expand the recruitment pipeline for Russian media. RT Academy offers potential employment opportunities to high-performing graduates of RT journalism programs. The Kremlin-controlled African Initiative news agency offered professional contracts to top students at African Initiative’s journalism school in Mali in December 2024. The Kremlin established the African Initiative in 2023 in an effort to disseminate anti-Western narratives in African countries.
Russian cognitive warfare spans generations. The Kremlin’s growing and global effort to co-opt media professionals and influencers early in their careers is critical to Russia’s ability to shape narratives over the coming decades. Kremlin-run media frequently promotes narratives that it then keeps nearly dormant for extended periods of time before reactivating them at opportune moments. Russian state media likely uses university outreach, programs like New Generation, and AI media trainings to cultivate pro-Russian sentiments among entry-level media professionals and to expand the recruitment pipeline for Russian state media.
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## Influence, Control, and Occupation
Global journalism training advances the Kremlin’s strategic objectives. These objectives include expanding Russia’s international influence, undermining Western influence, reestablishing control over the former Soviet states, and maintaining control over the territories Russia illegally occupies.
The Kremlin provides media training in non-Western countries to instill Russian narratives, shape foreign media coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and discredit the West. The Kremlin has established a large media training presence in Africa and Asia. Russian media outlets have held at least 20 journalism training events for participants from at least 29 African countries since July 2025, for example.
Russian media training includes Kremlin ideological indoctrination as part of program curricula. RT Academy instructors baselessly described Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) as “neo-Nazis” during a journalism training event for journalists from Africa. RT correspondent Igor Kurashenko promoted a false narrative during an online seminar for African journalists that Ukraine staged the Russian Armed Forces’ mass murder of Ukrainian civilians and POWs in Bucha, Kyiv Oblast in March 2022. The French-language editorial board of African Initiative reportedly taught 60 Malian journalism students in July and August 2024 to publish articles with “striking and provocative” headlines targeted against Western officials. African Initiative has also invited African journalists to Russia and the destroyed and occupied city of Mariupol, likely in an effort to influence their coverage of Russia’s war and atrocities in Ukraine.
Russian state media offers media training in the former Soviet states to advance the Kremlin’s strategic aim of reestablishing control over those countries. SputnikPro notably launched the “SputnikPro on Zubovsky” training program for Russian-language journalists from CIS countries in May 2023. SputnikPro on Zubovsky claims that it seeks to promote cooperation among Russian-language media outlets in the post-Soviet states. SputnikPro on Zubovsky hosted a multi-day series of trainings in Moscow in September 2025 for participants from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Russian-occupied Abkhazia, Georgia. SputnikPro on Zubovsky held training sessions in Moscow on the creation and promotion of Telegram channels in May and July 2024 and in September 2025. SputnikPro held in-person training sessions on AI content creation in Belarus in May 2026 and Tajikistan in April 2025; content creation and fact-checking in Uzbekistan in April 2026; audience retention in Georgia in April 2026 and Azerbaijan in April 2023; business journalism in Georgia in February 2025; content promotion at the Sputnik Kazakhstan press center in April 2023; and audience retention in Azerbaijan in April 2023. RT School, another RT-led media training program, hosted students from Belarus, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan as part of the 11th cohort of its TV and online journalism course in February 2025. The Kremlin likely aims to grow the cadre of Russia-trained journalists in former Soviet states to propagate narratives that support Kremlin efforts to influence public opinion and political decision-making in those countries.
Russian media training is a part of the Kremlin’s occupation playbook, which aims to establish firm control over Russian-occupied territories. The Kremlin has been offering media training for journalists in occupied parts of Ukraine since before the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with RT organizing an internship for journalists from occupied Donetsk Oblast in March 2021. Russian occupation authorities have since opened media training centers for high school and university students in Mariupol and for journalism students aged 16 to 25 in Donetsk City in 2024. Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti operates a multimedia press center in Russian-occupied Simferopol, Crimea, where it holds SputnikPro trainings, including on topics such as AI content creation and reporting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. RT School trained journalists on a range of subjects, including AI-assisted media workflows, in Sukhumi and Gagra in Russian-occupied Abkhazia, Georgia in February 2026. SputnikPro held a masterclass in Tskhinvali in Russian-occupied South Ossetia, Georgia, on promoting channels on Telegram and the Kremlin’s state-controlled messenger app MAX in June 2026. Journalists and bloggers from Transnistria, the pro-Russian breakaway region of Moldova, attended a media training program at Rossotrudnichestvo’s InterNovosti media school in Moscow in December 2023. The Russian-trained cadre of journalists is a tool of the Kremlin’s effort to establish and sustain information control in the territories Russia illegally occupies.
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## Implications
The Kremlin’s efforts to build a global cadre of Russia-trained journalists and coopt the next generation of media professionals globally remain largely uncontested. The United States and its partners need to monitor and disrupt Russia’s efforts to expand its media conglomerate or otherwise risk facing a growing Russian capability to spread false narratives and shape perceptions, decisions, and actions around the globe and over time. The United States and its partners must recognize that Russia is specifically targeting youth in non-Western countries to cultivate anti-Western sentiment in regions of the world that hold strategic importance to both Russia and the West, such as Africa.
The United States and its partners can thwart Russian media expansion efforts by exposing the Kremlin’s ideological media training, providing alternatives to such training, increasing economic pressure on Russia, and investing in Ukrainian battlefield successes.
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## How to Watch the Ecosystem
Key Russian journalism training programs: SputnikPro, SputnikPro on Zubovsky, RT Academy, RT School, InteRussia, and New Media Workshop.
**Individuals central to the Kremlin’s journalism training efforts who indicate the direction of the effort:**
* **Vasily Pushkov:** the director of international cooperation at Rossiya Segodnya [Russia Today]; participated in numerous training events worldwide, including throughout Africa and in China.
* **Anna Kalinkina:** senior video editor for Sputnik Africa; frequently leads training sessions for African journalists on integration of AI into media work.
* **Anna Kovtunova:** the head of RT Academy; led numerous training events in China and Africa.
* **Alexander Petrov:** AI and video production specialist for Rossiya Segodnya [Russia Today]; often leads trainings in the post-Soviet space and Russian-occupied territories.
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## Universities and Media Outlets that Received Russian State Media Training
*(This list represents partial findings)*
* **Algeria**
* Le Jeune Indépendant
* **Argentina**
* Ambito Financiero
* National University of Quilmes
* Página 12
* **Armenia**
* Tsayg TV
* **Bangladesh**
* Daffodil International University
* University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh
* **Belarus**
* Gomel TV and Radio Company
* **Bolivia**
* San Francisco de Asís University
* Visión 360
* **Brazil**
* Brasil 247
* University of Sorocaba
* **Burkina Faso**
* Institut Supérieur de la Communication et du Multimédia
* Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina
* **Burundi**
* Burundi News Agency
* **Cameroon**
* Cameroon News Agency
* Cameroon Radio Television
* Radio Tiémeni Siantou
* **Chad**
* Flash-Tchad
* **China**
* Beijing Language and Culture University
* China Content Broadcasting Network
* Communication University of Zhejiang
* Dalian University of Foreign Languages
* East China Normal University
* Lanzhou University
* Peking University
* Renmin University of China
* Shanghai International Studies University
* Sichuan University
* Tsinghua University
* **Colombia**
* El Espectador
* **Cuba**
* Telesur
* **Dominican Republic**
* Listín Diario
* **Ecuador**
* Empresa Pública de Comunicación
* Exa FM
* **Egypt**
* Al-Akhbar
* Daily News Egypt
* **El Salvador**
* El Independiente
* **Ethiopia**
* Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation
* Ethiopian Ministry of Defense
* Ethiopian News Agency
* Fana Broadcasting Corporate
* **Gabon**
* Agence Gabonaise de Presse
* **Gambia**
* Gambia News Agency
* **Georgia**
* State Television and Radio Company “Ir”
* **Ghana**
* University of Education, Winneba
* **India**
* Amity School of Communication
* Bennett University
* Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies
* Jawaharlal Nehru University
* Sharda University
* University of Petroleum and Energy Studies
* **Indonesia**
* National Development University “Veteran” Yogyakarta
* **Iraq**
* Iraq International News Agency
* **Kazakhstan**
* 24KZ
* **Kenya**
* Kenya Broadcasting Corporation
* Radio Africa Group
* **Lebanon**
* Al Mayadeen
* **Libya**
* Libyan News Agency
* University of Tripoli
* **Mali**
* MaliJet
* Office of Radio and Television of Mali
* **Mexico**
* Sin Línea
* **Morocco**
* Bayane Al Yaoume
* **Namibia**
* Namibia Broadcasting Corporation
* **Nicaragua**
* Telesur
* **Niger**
* Agence Nigérienne de Presse
* École Supérieure de Journalisme et de Communication
* **Nigeria**
* News Agency of Nigeria
* **Pakistan**
* Information Service Academy
* **Peru**
* Andina
* National University of Ucayali
* **Philippines**
* New Era University
* **Saudi Arabia**
* Saudi Press Agency
* **Serbia**
* University of Belgrade
* **South Africa**
* Independent Media
* Independent Online
* University of Johannesburg
* **South Korea**
* Seokyeong University
* **Syria**
* Al-Souriya TV
* **Tanzania**
* University of Dar es Salaam
* **Thailand**
* Rangsit University
* **Tunisia**
* Radio Sabra FM
* Réalités
* Tunis Afrique Presse
* **Turkey**
* Harici
* **Uganda**
* New Vision
* **United Arab Emirates**
* Emirates News Agency
* United Arab Emirates University
* **Uzbekistan**
* Bucheon University Tashkent
* Uzbek State World Languages University
* **Venezuela**
* Bolivarian University of Venezuela
* Telesur
* **Vietnam**
* Báo Hưng Yên
* Báo Quảng Ninh điện tử
* Nhân Dân
* Vietnam News Agency
* Voice of Vietnam
* **West Bank and Gaza**
* Al-Azhar University
* Ma’an News Agency
* **Yemen**
* Sana’a University
* Yemen Today
* **Zambia**
* Zambia Daily Mail
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