Gazprom-Media Holding recaps results of the 2023 Russia—Africa Forum

On July 27–28, St. Petersburg hosted the Russia—Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum. Gazprom-Media Holding was the media partner of the event.

The forum business program was attended by the Holding’s top management—Tina Kandelaki and Yulia Golubeva, Deputy CEOs of Gazprom-Media Holding, Vadim Vereshchagin, CEO of Central Partnership and Dmitry Guberniev, a Match TV commentator.

Tina Kandelaki, Deputy CEO of Gazprom-Media Holding, said at the session “Creative Economy: Development of Cultural Products and Brands” on the first day of the forum that the Holding’s companies had extensive expertise in content production in Africa.

Tina Kandelaki

Deputy CEO of Gazprom-Media Holding

Our African colleagues are long-standing and incredibly reliable partners of Gazprom-Media Holding. During the shoots of our TNT show “New Stars in Africa,” TV hosts Olga Buzova and Mikhail Galustyan spend months on the African continent. They have already become de-facto ambassadors for tourism in Africa—they post a huge amount of content from Africa on their social media, which have millions of subscribers. With the professional excellence of our colleagues from African countries, their openness and willingness to work with us, we are ready to expand our cooperation and develop the film and television industry together. I’m sure that the African continent, which is home to 1.5 billion people, will also enjoy watching our co-produced content.

On July 27, CEO of Central Partnership Vadim Vereshchagin spoke at the session “The Role of Video Content in the Development of the Media Business and Media Outlets: the Digital Technology Serving Russia and Africa.” Vadim Vereshchagin shared the key projects of the Gazprom-Media Holding companies and spoke about the possibility of supplying the Holding’s content to foreign partners.

Vadim Vereshchagin

CEO of Central Partnership

Central Partnership has sold content to more than 200 countries over the past seven years. Our projects are not inferior in quality to Hollywood and European analogues. Gazprom-Media Holding creates a universal product that can reach the hearts of any audience. As part of our cooperation with Africa, we are happy to provide our content to African audiences and, most importantly, in all the necessary languages.

On the opening day of the forum, Match TV commentator Dmitry Guberniev moderated the session “Sport: A Bridge of Friendship between Russia and Africa.” The panelists discussed the development of sports collaboration between Russia and African countries through joint projects and new frameworks of international competitions and educational initiatives.

Dmitry Guberniev

Match TV commentator

Sport is an essential thread, or maybe even a thick rope that has connected and will continue to bring Russia and African countries even closer together. In the past, our specialists have also helped to unlock the potential of African sports. Today, this collaboration in sports continues to develop.

The second day of the forum featured the session “Global Values as a Basis for Interaction in the Educational and Cultural Sphere.” One of the participants was Yulia Golubeva, Deputy CEO of Gazprom-Media Holding. She spoke about the need to raise awareness of the culture of African countries and shared the survey conducted on the Telegram channel of Gazprom-Media Holding. The results showed that 88% of the country’s population knew nothing about the works of African writers, artists, and film directors. The survey polled 13,500 people. Yulia Golubeva also spoke about the rich history of relations between Russia and Africa and stressed that Russia has never been involved in colonial robbery.

Yulia Golubeva

Deputy CEO of Gazprom-Media Holding

We firmly believe that it is wrong to create content about or for another country without the knowledge of its culture and, in our case, without communication with representatives of African countries. Gazprom-Media Holding is ready for cooperation. The Holding can develop a package of programs to be subsequently broadcast on the African continent, as well as publish the content produced by our African colleagues on its own resources. For example, it is possible to create dedicated channels on the Holding’s digital platforms and upload films to the PREMIER online cinema, where documentaries on the culture of different peoples are very popular. In addition, considering the Holding’s extensive work experience with other countries, we can discuss cooperation in joint film production.

The results of these discussions, featuring the speakers of the Holding companies, are published on the website and Telegram channel of Gazprom-Media Holding.Broadcasts of the forum sessions are available on the RUTUBE national video hosting service.

TNT, Match TV, Central Partnership, PREMIER and RUTUBE are part of Gazprom-Media Holding.

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