Via Fedorova: the Kremlin’s voice in Paris

The French Ministry of the Interior has (finally) issued an expulsion order today against the Russian journalist and Kremlin spokesperson in France, Xenia Fedorova. “By disseminating her narratives, she acts as a conduit for disinformation campaigns orchestrated by the Russian authorities” with the aim of “destabilising public order in France”, according to the government decree. Her behaviour, the Ministry of the Interior states, “undermines the fundamental interests of the state” and her presence on French soil “therefore constitutes a particularly serious and imminent threat to public order”. A former director of Russia Today France – the Kremlin-backed TV channel in Paris that was shut down in 2022 along with its four other European branches following the Russian invasion of Ukraine – Fedorova has in recent years become one of the leading commentators within the media empire of Vincent Bolloré, the ultra-conservative Breton magnate at the helm of the Canal Plus television group and the publishing giant Lagardère.

The 45-year-old journalist appears regularly on CNews (TV), Europe 1 (radio) and in JDNews (weekly), all owned by Bolloré. In May, Le Monde revealed that Fedorova had had her ten-year residence permit renewed in 2024, causing considerable embarrassment to the French government, which had defended itself by claiming that it was merely an automatic procedure. Fedorova’s lawyer told AFP that his client “will immediately lodge an appeal” against the expulsion order. In a statement, the Canal Plus and Lagardère groups expressed their “full support” for “their employee” and denounced a “particularly serious violation of freedom of expression”. However, it will be difficult to prove that Fedorova, through Bolloré’s media empire, did not carry out a not-all-that-sophisticated disinformation campaign, aligning herself with Moscow’s narrative and posing a threat to public order.