These are the French-speaking voices of Moscow’s propaganda. Installed or regularly invited to Russia, French people relay the discourse of Russian power in the media or on social networks. Often close to the far right, these agents of influence are part of the Kremlin’s information strategy.
“Here Moscow, the French speak to the French”… On RT in French, a new program appeared on November 26. Although the Russian government channel is today banned in Europe and its studios in Paris have closed, it still produces programs in French from Moscow. Visible on the web, this talk show is modeled on those of the propagandists on Russian government television. At the helm, Xavier Moreau is not unknown. This former French army officer, based in Moscow for more than 20 years, first relayed the Kremlin’s message on social networks before landing on the channel financed by the Russian authorities.
Around him, four other French people from Moscow comment on current events, that is to say the war in Ukraine. They all repeat the Kremlin’s classic narrative to the letter. Here we are not talking about the Ukrainian army, but “Otano-Kievian“, nor war but “special operation“. The French media are taking it for their rank. Laurent Brayard, a “war reporter and historian” who collaborated with the separatist administration in Donbass says “that they only repeat Ukrainian propaganda“, concluding: “the bandization of France is underways”. Reference to Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian nationalist who collaborated with the 3rd Reich during the Second World War regularly cited by Vladimir Putin as a symbol of the “nazification” of Ukraine.
Russophiles versus Russophobes
Fabrice Sorlin, a traditionalist Catholic exiled in Moscow, presented as vice-president of the International Russophile Movement, is questioned about the “Russophobia“ambient in the West. That’s the fact”ruling bourgeois elites“, he says. “The people support Russia“, he concludes in front of Xavier Moreau who acquiesces. Presented as a “geopolitologist”, Nicolas Dolo, a businessman based in Moscow, believes that we have “too much considered that the Russian General Staff in Moscow were three poor guys drinking vodka in a cupboard, when in fact they are brilliant people“.
Xavier Moreau has Russian nationality, as does Adrien Bocquet, another Frenchman, who arrived more recently in Moscow. This former soldier made headlines in the French media when he claimed last year to have witnessed war crimes committed by the Ukrainian army. Several media outlets showed that his story and even his biography were completely false. But Adrien Bocquet ended up landing in Moscow. Today, he sometimes presents himself as a military expert, sometimes as a journalist through his appearances on television or social networks.
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Adrien Bocquet collaborates in particular with Afrique media, a pan-African television channel which constitutes one of the main relays of Russian propaganda on the continent. On his Telegram account, he also broadcasts videos filmed in Donbass or “investigations”. In one of them, he claims to reveal that Volodymir Zelensky studied in Moscow, to better confront him with his contradictions. Forgetting that it is common knowledge that the current Ukrainian president was a star of Russian television in the early 2000s and that he lived in Moscow where he did not study, however…
It doesn’t really matter whether the facts are accurate or not, these French people have another interest in the Kremlin. “They are used to whitewash Russian propaganda“, explains Maxime Audinet, researcher at IRSEM and specialist in Russian influence strategies. “The objective is to make the message more effective, he continues. A French citizen who defends positions that can be described as pro-Kremlin can be perceived as more credible than if he is a propagandist from a Russian state media where he will be directly associated with Moscow.“.
Methods that already existed under the USSR
Recruiting French agents of influence is nothing new on the Russian side. In 1980, the journalist Pierre Charles Pathé, the son of the famous cinema industrialist, was sentenced to 5 years in prison for publishing articles with a strong pro-Soviet tone financed by the KGB. Pierre-Charles Pathé had acted because of his communist convictions but also out of financial interest.
On the Moscow side, today, Pierre Malinowsky denies being an agent of the Kremlin. He claims to have nothing to do with the members of the French community who are responsible for relaying the discourse of power. But he admits his love for Russia, “a country [qu’il a] found it great from his first trip there“, about ten years ago. This former paratrooper claims to have found a vein to maintain links between Russia and France. For years, he has been carrying out archaeological excavations to find the remains of soldiers from both countries on the battlefields… We owe him in particular the return to France of the remains of General Gudin, a Napoleonic officer who died during the Russian campaign.
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Thanks to his foundation, financed by a Russian oligarch, this close friend of the Kremlin spokesperson, Dimitri Peskov, pursues the objective of making people talk about Russia.otherwise“.”What’s important is to make people dream and take their minds off things a little.”, he explained recently during an interview with the Russian agency RIA Novosti. “We had reports on TF1, the New York Times will soon publish two pages, even though they are Russian soldiers!“, he congratulated himself in reference to his latest discoveries of bodies of members of the Russian corps from the First World War in Champagne. His goal is clear: “Once the operation is completed, we withdraw, giving way to diplomacy. We let the bosses talk among themselves. History is the only positive bridge that currently exists between France and Russia.”
Pierre Malinowsky nevertheless has one thing in common with his compatriots supporters of Russian power. Former parliamentary assistant to Jean-Marie Le Pen in the European Parliament, his political affiliation is on the far right. This is also the case for Xavier Moreau. “There are strong ideological convergences between the European far-right or national-sovereignist movements and the Putinian regime, deciphers Maxime Audinet. Moreover, when the RT channel was established in France, we know that it sought to recruit in these circles. And we find this with this group of far-right French people based in Moscow and who did not leave Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.”
Convergences between Moscow and the European far right
Other French people known for their proximity to the radical right or conspiracy circles have also recently come to Moscow in recent times. Like Arnaud Develay, a lawyer who played the role of “observer” during the referendums organized by Moscow in the occupied territories in Ukraine last year. He also spoke on December 4 at the Tass agency in Moscow during a conference entitled, “Nazism in Ukraine in the 21st century“. He warmly thanked the organizers, hoping to be able to “continue to re-educate the public and affirm what the historical truth is“.
Another regular at Moscow conferences: Thierry Saint-Germes, who spoke again on October 6 at a conference devoted to the European press. Sometimes presented as an international civil servant, sometimes as a journalist, he notably signed, under the name Thierry Thonidor, articles in the anti-Semitic far-right weekly Rivarol or for the website of Alain Soral’s movement, Equality and Reconciliation, for who conducted an interview with Daria Douguina, the murdered daughter of the ideologue Alexandre Duguina.
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At the end of November, the TASS agency announced that the Russian Interior Ministry was considering requiring foreigners residing in Russia to sign a “loyalty agreement”, prohibiting them in particular from criticizing Moscow’s policies. For the moment the idea, which the Kremlin refused to comment on, appears to remain in draft form. But it already seems clear that some will have no trouble signing such a document. And to comply with it.