Karen Allen reported from Madagascar earlier this month:
The three Russians who landed on the Indian Ocean Island of Madagascar showed a curious interest in church architecture when they arrived months before the 2018 presidential election… But their particular interest in the expansion plans for the Church of the Apocalypse… betrayed what appears to have been their primary motivation: future proofing Russia’s increasing influence on the island state and deepening its presence across Africa.
According to the founder and head of the Church of Apocalypse, the Rev. André Mailhol, it was revealed to him in 1996, in a supernatural vision, that he should study the Book of Apocalypse and would become president of Madagascar in the 2018 election. His church, according to Radio France Internationale, numbers 1.5-2.0 million members, which isn’t bad at all for a nation of 27 million. (The name sounds perfect in French: l’Église apocalyptique.) Even some of the country’s educators supported Mailhol’s bid for presidency.
Joined by good friends from the far north:
A BBC investigation has revealed that Pastor André Mailhol was one of at least six presidential hopefuls targeted by a team of politically connected Russians and offered millions of dollars in cash…
Despite all this, Mailhol’s result was remarkably poor – only 1.3% of the vote in the first round (naturally, he didn’t make it to round two). The other candidate Allen mentions, Omer Beriziky – the former PM who “admitted that he too was offered two million dollars in cash by the Russians” – received an even more measly 0.3% share.
It didn’t work out the first time, in other words, but who said there wouldn’t be a second and a third?