The next step in the Kremlin's Africa strategy appears to be playing out in the continent's so-called "coup belt".
In late January a post on the Telegram social media site announced the deployment of 100 Russian soldiers to the West African country of Burkina Faso.
The post, linked to Russia's Ministry of Defence, said the troops were part of Moscow's new Africa Corps.
The organisation seems poised to assume most of the operations of the Wagner group, the Russian private military company that deployed mercenaries across Africa.
"What we're looking at at this point is just a continuation of Wagner's presence in the form of the Africa Corps," said Isabella Currie, a La Trobe University researcher who has spent years studying Wagner.
"It will obviously be more publicly recognised by the Putin regime, whereas Wagner was not previously."
After Wagner's founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed last year, just months after leading a failed mutiny in Russia, there were questions about the group's operations in Africa.
But Ms Currie says the group never went away after Prigozhin and key Wagner leaders were killed in a plane crash that raised suspicion of Kremlin involvement.
"They were still very active in Africa. I think the process that we have seen across African states really continued as business as usual."
The Telegram post indicated 200 more Russian troops would be deployed. Many analysts believe this is just the beginning of the Africa Corps assuming Wagner's operations, under the control of Russia's Ministry of Defence.
Russian exploitation
"I do think that the Africa Corps will probably become the primary actor in the area," Ms Currie said.
If so, the Africa Corps will be operating extensively in the continent's coup belt: Seven countries in the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert that have experienced military coups in the last two-and-a-half years.
Wagner is understood to have operated in Mali, Niger and Sudan, and Russia's Africa Corps is now in Burkina Faso.
Outside the coup belt, Wagner works extensively in the Central African Republic.
The current instability is the most Africa has seen since the wave of independence that swept the continent in the 1960s.
"It does feel like something has changed. It's not going to return to the way it was," Semafor Africa editor Yinka Adegoke said.
All but one of the countries where civilian governments were toppled are former French colonies.
"There's a lot of built-up resentment towards the French. It's built up over decades," Mr Adegoke said.
"In many ways, it's very easy for any sort of person who is trying to control to point a finger at the French say, 'Why are they still here?'"
Much of the anti-French sentiment was fuelled on social media by videos originating from Russia.
One portrayed Zombie French soldiers being mowed down by Mali's military junta with help from mercenaries from Russia's Wagner group.
Another video first shared on Russian social media depicts France as a giant rat and shows a home owner calling a Wagner mercenary to exterminate it.
"There was a significant disinformation effort in Mali," Ms Currie said.
"There was a lot of anti-France, anti-government information that was coming out, particularly on social media … they really laid this foundation of evicting the French."
The anti-French sentiment was already widespread in West Africa, says Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
Misinformation linked to Russia and Wagner just amplified it.
"The Russians seize on opportunities that open up for them," Mr Dizolele said.
"When France and other Western countries get in conflict with these African countries … it ends up often with these European Union countries and France and the allies leaving those countries, creating a void. And that is the opportunity that the Russians then come and exploit."
It's no surprise, Mr Dizolele said, that military juntas in countries such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso are moving closer to Moscow. The governments coup leaders deposed were corrupt and did little to raise living standards.
And, they were backed by Western countries for decades.
"It's a wake-up call for Western countries to look also in the mirror, to sit at a drawing table and say, 'What are we doing? Why are we here? Why are we failing?' There is shared responsibility here," he said.
Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have announced plans to withdraw from West Africa's economic and political bloc, ECOWAS.
Ms Currie believes more countries could follow their lead.
"Looking towards countries like Russia, particularly presenting itself as a liberator of these countries and providing them with autonomy in decision making, citing sovereignty and just offering security and military services, that's very attractive," she said.
"We may be shifting a balance in these regions where we will start to see more regimes take power and more autocrats appear."
Mr Adegoke from Semafor Africa believes more countries are at risk of military coups. They have ageing leaders, some who have been in power for decades. And potential coup leaders know they have a willing ally in Russia.
"[It's] almost like you might call it the contagion that happens in the air," he said.
"People look at the situation and go, 'I think we can. This is a good time for us to make a move because we'll get support if we do this.'"
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