The Kremlin has stepped up its destabilization campaign against France for several months and is taking advantage of the Olympic Games to amplify its sounding board.
Stars of David tagged on Parisian buildings, red hands painted on the Shoah Memorial, coffins covered with French flags with the words “French soldiers from Ukraine” deposited near the Eiffel Tower… For several months, Russia has been waging a massive campaign of disinformation and destabilization throughout Europe. But France, with the Paris 2024 Games, is particularly targeted. It is even the most affected country.
“A year ago, France, for the first time, officially attributed to Russia operations of artificial amplification of content on social networks such as Doppelgänger [faux articles de médias authentiques]. Since then, Viginum, the French vigilance service against foreign digital interference, has denounced a growing number of digital interference from the Kremlin. recalls David Colon, teacher and researcher at Sciences Po and author of the book The information war (Ed. Tallandier). Videos doctored using artificial intelligence, publication of false press articles, or even an increase in actions aimed at destabilizing the authorities, the list is not exhaustive.
On June 2, the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) published a report on “intensification” death “malicious influence campaigns” carried out and coordinated by Moscow, targeting France, the head of state Emmanuel Macron as well as the International Olympic Committee (IOC). “These campaigns could be a warning sign of the online threats that will weigh on this summer’s international competition,” he alerts.
The Russian embassy in France rejects these facts outright, denouncing a “witch hunt”. “The embassy declares with all responsibility that the Russian Federation has never interfered and does not interfere in the internal affairs of France – our country has other, more important priorities,” she reacted on her site on June 4. “This is nothing but pure slander,” tackled Dmitri Peskov, spokesperson for the Kremlin.
Behind these interference operations, the objective is to destabilize the host country, France, but also the IOC, while creating an anxiety-provoking climate over the reception of this global event. “An event like the Olympic and Paralympic Games is watched by billions of viewers, and therefore attracts the attention of the entire world. Thus, for Vladimir Putin, the Olympic Games become a platform to promote his interests at little cost,” analyzes Lukas Aubin, research director at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (Iris).
“Behind, there is the desire to spread their own narrative and worldview, that the West collectively is at war against Russia.”
Lukas Aubin, research director at the Institute of International and Strategic Relationsat franceinfo: sport
“The other interest is to disseminate what we call ‘Russian confusionism’, in order to discredit the Olympics and encourage disunity among the French population.” These methods thus make it possible to fuel a climate of distrust within the French population, but also worldwide, thus suggesting that Paris is on the verge of implosion. “Their strategy is thus to affect the potential benefits, whether symbolic, economic, material, tourist, of the Games, for the organizing country which is an enemy,” supports Jean-Baptiste Guégan, teacher in geopolitics of sport and co-author with Lukas Aubin of The sports war. A new geopolitics (Ed. Tallandier).
However, for Moscow, the success or otherwise of the Paris Games does not matter. The Kremlin’s strategy is based not on reality, but on the perception of the population. “The information war is a war of perception. The Kremlin’s propaganda apparatus distorts reality”, explains teacher-researcher David Colon.
In addition to hosting the Games, France is particularly targeted in retaliation for its stated support for Ukraine in the war between it and Russia. “In the context of the Olympic Games, it is a question of weakening the confidence of the French in their institutions and their political power, and of weakening the image and interests of France in the world,” analyzes David Colon.
To achieve this, the Olympic Games are a perfect sounding board. “Most of the destabilization attempts targeting France are relayed to Russian audiences so that the Kremlin shows its citizens how democratic countries are, in reality, hell on earth, and thus encourage them to accept more of the subordination which is the theirs to an authoritarian regime These stories are then deployed around the world. continues this specialist.
Attempts at destabilization have even intensified in recent months following several positions taken by Paris. First with Emmanuel Macron who, in January, affirmed that Russia should not win in Ukraine, before leaving the door open, in March, to a possible sending of French soldiers to Ukraine. The French government also publicly denounced the assumed strategy of information warfare, coordinated and led by the Kremlin.
“Following these speeches, France was perceived by the Russian intelligentsia as one of the main aggressors of Russia, along with the United States.”
Lukas Aubin, doctor in geopolitics of sportat franceinfo: sport
The budgets allocated to disinformation and information warfare have also increased in 2024, according to Kremlin Leaks, documents from the Russian administration disclosed by the Estonian information site Delphi. “The 2024 budget for influence operations of the Russian Federation amounts to more than one billion euros, which does not include the budgets of intelligence services or the sums invested by private actors in particular”explains David Colon.
And this rise in power is not over, according to the experts. “We are going to take another step forward, advances Lukas Aubin. However, if the National Rally were to win the next legislative elections, and the new prime minister came from the RN, a party with comments rather favorable to Russia, the Kremlin could reduce its attacks by considering France as an ally.
The Paris 2024 Games are not the only ones affected by attempts at Russian interference. “It’s been systematic for decadesnotes David Colon. At the‘At the time, most of them came under the operations of intelligence services, in order to influence the perception of the Olympics within opposing societies to weaken them, starting with American society.”
Already during the 1984 Los Angeles Games, the Russians tried to discredit the event. “Moscow’s idea was to create a feeling of insecurity linked to these Games. This is also interpreted as a response to the boycott which took place four years earlier during the Moscow Games. recalls Lukas Aubin. Today, there are social media platforms that offer Kremlin propagandists direct access to hundreds of millions of people around the world.
In this context, the Paris Games appear as “the most tense Games since 1984”, points out Lukas Aubin without hesitation. From a geopolitical point of view, these Olympics are being organized in a context of the return of war in Europe (in Ukraine) and a renewed tension in Gaza, without forgetting the investment of a certain number of actors in cyberspace and taking advantage of the Games as a means of spreading their disinformation. “There is also a reinvestment in sport by authoritarian regimes, which there was no longer in the 1990s, underlines Jean-Baptiste Guégan, and where sports diplomacy and the use of sport for geopolitical purposes have never been so effective and meaningful.”