The presidential campaign now getting underway in France is the pivotal moment when democracy comes together to discuss its future. It is precisely this moment that a foreign power has chosen to exploit. Russia no longer hides this fact. Its chief propagandist, Margarita Simonyan, recently proclaimed the country is “fighting all of Europe”. This battle is not being waged solely in the trenches of the Donbas: it is being fought on television sets, in newspapers, and in the realm of public opinion.
It now has a face. When Édouard Philippe and Bruno Retailleau, two candidates for the presidency, traveled to Kyiv to reaffirm France’s support for Ukraine, a voice on a Parisian TV channel responded that this trip was ill-advised, that it would be better to “engage in dialogue with Russia”—even as Russia murders Ukrainian civilians on a daily basis. Criticizing the trip to Kyiv by presidential candidates is an attack on the very core of French diplomacy—the affirmation of our alliances—at the very moment the nation is preparing to choose its next leader. That voice belongs to Xenia Fedorova, the former president of RT France. That a spokesperson for the Kremlin’s interests should set out to sway our diplomacy by influencing the electoral debate: this is interference—no longer merely suspected, but actively taking place, in plain sight.
Like any of us, Ms. Fedorova is entitled to her opinions. But she is not just an ordinary citizen. She is the instrument of a system. She headed the news division at RT France, an outlet that the European Union has banned—with court rulings to back it up—as a vehicle for disinformation controlled by the Russian state. Having moved into high-reach media as the head of a “consulting” firm, she continues to serve the same function as a “columnist” on CNews. The “defense” of Ms. Fedorova by Arnaud Lagardère, on Europe 1, and Gerald-Brice Viret, CEO of Canal+, in Le Journal du Dimanche (another acquisition of the Bolloré Group) loudly invokes freedom of expression. Yet the scandal does not stem from Xenia Fedorova’s beliefs: it lies in the fact that she is able to spout her falsehoods without ever facing the slightest challenge, on networks that have abandoned pluralism to complacently open their microphones to all Kremlin spokespeople. The paradox is striking: a channel, CNews, obsessed with “dangers from abroad,” nevertheless displays unparalleled docility in the face of the rhetoric of a nuclear power that is not only hostile to our interests but also constantly threatens us. The irony would be laughable if the looming deadline—the presidential election—didn’t make it so troubling.
In expressing her “point of view,” Ms. Fedorova repeatedly crosses the line into the despicable. In a recent column, she went to great lengths to deny Russia has abducted Ukrainian children—a crime against humanity that forms the basis of the arrest warrant issued against Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court in 2023. Casting doubt on the deportation of children is not merely one opinion among many: it is not only taking up the defense of a defendant before international justice, but also denying the proven facts of the matter. The Minister of Foreign Affairs was in no doubt about this, describing her as “a notorious propagandist and a conduit for Kremlin disinformation”. When questioned publicly not long ago, at the 2025 Book Fair, about these deportations of Ukrainian children, she chose to remain silent.
Let us assess the danger. With the presidential election due in Spring next year, the columnist’s “free expression”—backed by the firepower of the entire Bolloré media group and put at Moscow’s service—is no longer merely a harmful opinion: it is a risk to our institutions, our interests, and our diplomacy. Every week, channels with a very wide audience provide a French sounding board for the disinformation of an aggressor state at the very heart of our democratic life.
Yet a democracy is not defenseless. It has tools at its disposal—the European Union’s individual sanctions, immigration law, and the foreign influence registry established in 2024—which do not judge ideas, but rather roles. We demand three things. First, that Arcom monitor the accuracy of information and ensure pluralism on the Bolloré Group’s channels, which open their airwaves to the propaganda of a hostile government. Second, that the government refer the matter to European authorities for individual sanctions, as it has already done successfully. Finally, and most importantly, that Ms. Fedorova’s right of residence be reviewed: French law allows for the removal of a foreign national whose presence undermines the fundamental interests of the State, and we cannot grant a residence permit on our soil to someone who uses her position to serve the cognitive warfare of a hostile power.
Let us stop confusing freedom of expression with the so-called right of a propagandist directed by a foreign capital to turn our media against our democracy, our diplomacy, and our institutions. Let us not call tolerance what is nothing more than surrender; let us not accept that the presidential election become a theater of hostile operations. This is a matter of national security.
The coming year will reveal whether France has become aware of the cognitive and information war the Kremlin is waging against it.
Galia Ackerman, historian, editor-in-chief of Desk Russie
Cyril Amoursky, journalist, columnist, and independent war correspondent
Julien Bayou, attorney at the Paris Bar
Alexandre Melnik, professor of geopolitics at ICN Business School, former Russian diplomat
Florent Murer, president of French non profit Kalyna
Pierre Raiman, historian, vice president of “For Ukraine, for Their Freedom and Ours!”
Sylvie Rollet, professor emerita, president of “For Ukraine, for Their Freedom and Ours!”
Nicolas Tenzer, international affairs analyst, author of, among other works, Our War: Crime and Oblivion
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