the cultural adviser to the French ambassador in Moscow asked to leave the country

The cultural adviser to the French ambassador to Russia is no longer welcome in the country, according to information from franceinfo, Sunday June 19. Pierre Lévy, the French ambassador, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry where he was informed that the accreditation of his cultural adviser would not be renewed, and that the latter had to leave Russian territory before July 17 .

According to a diplomatic source at franceinfo, this decision means that for Moscow, “France is now in the camp of unfriendly states and maintaining relations with it can be considered as treason”.

Fabrice Rousseau, the cultural adviser in question, is accused by Russia of having set up hidden funding schemes for an independent information site now banned in the country, and for the Memorial association, recently dissolved by Russian justice. Memorial, which has long documented the crimes of Stalinism and defended human rights in Russia, is now banned in the country. France has indeed participated in its financing but in a completely legal and transparent way, explain several connoisseurs of the file.

This case comes a few days after Emmanuel Macron’s visit to kyiv and in a context of all-out repression in Russia. At the end of May, Moscow had already announced the expulsion of 34 French diplomats. A measure of reprisal for the expulsions in April by France of 41 Russians, in the wake of the offensive in Ukraine.

When contacted, the French Embassy in Moscow said it did not wish to comment on this affair.