Russian intelligence has its sights set on the French elections

A group affiliated with the Russian intelligence agency, the GRU, has launched a disinformation campaign against Raphaël Glucksmann, a centre-left MEP who could be the moderate left’s candidate in next year’s French elections. Glucksmann said he had been informed by the French General Secretariat for National Defence and Security of a “Russian operation” controlled “directly by the Russian GRU”. Former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, who is standing in the presidential election, was also reportedly targeted by a Russian disinformation campaign last week. The disinformation attempt against Glucksmann involved an article published on a website mimicking the Blast site and a video on social media claiming that Glucksmann’s partner, Léa Salamé – who presents the prime-time news programme on French public television – had tried to bribe other journalists to speak favourably of Glucksmann’s likely candidacy. “Russian agencies have launched operations to destabilise the 2027 presidential elections,” the MEP wrote on his social media: “Ce n’est qu’un début” – this is just a taste of what is to come.

Glucksmann has a long personal and family history of defending Ukraine and the post-Soviet states under attack from Moscow, and is one of the European left’s clearest voices on the need to counter Russia’s military and hybrid interference in Europe. The French elections are a prime target for all those seeking to destabilise the country – unfortunately, it is not just the Russians; there are also Trump supporters, but the Russians have a more sophisticated and far-reaching disinformation and manipulation machine, which Glucksmann has often denounced and sought to dismantle at European level. The vote takes place in the spring; this is only the beginning.