France should not fall for Kremlin propaganda

Ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, there have been those whose sympathies lie with the aggressor.

Donald Trump, the supposed leader of the free world, has sometimes appeared to advocate giving Vladimir Putin whatever he wants to end the war.

At times he has seemed to think that just giving Putin the part of Ukraine that his troops already occupy would be enough.

He does not grasp that Putin probably wants the whole lot, as a part of a crackpot plan to rebuild the Soviet Union under a different name.

Some want to placate Russia because their countries became unduly dependent on its natural resources, particularly oil and gas.

And there are always those who simply think ‘might is right’. The leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, used to find nice words about Putin, but to be fair to him he has turned down the volume on that song in recent years.

Mr Farage wants to be Prime Minister and knows British public opinion is firmly on Ukraine’s side. Any British politician expressing even mild approval of Putin is on a fast track to retirement.

Growing sympathy for aggressor

In France, however, it appears fashionable in some quarters to criticise Ukraine and to question hostility to Russia.

Not long ago, such views were only to be found on the margins of French public discourse; but now they are being advanced ever more readily and forcefully.

They have it that Ukraine is corrupt (something unthinkable of Russia, of course), that NATO and the EU provoked the war, and that Russia had to defend itself.

This may be based on ignorance; it may be based on ideology; it may simply be based on some sort of contrarian thinking which, when it presents itself these days, is often about attention-seeking in the digital sphere. Alternatively, it may be down to simple malevolence and mischief-making.

What appears to underpin this latest fashion is the claim that the conflict between the two countries has gone on long enough and it is time for some sort of peace settlement.

Such rhetoric inevitably takes no account of who started the war, their mendacious reasons for doing so, and that the obviously wronged party – Ukraine – has no reason to settle for some sort of draw.

Contributory factors

Two other factors may well be fuelling the debate in France. The first is the approach of the presidential elections – scheduled for spring 2027 – and the idea that the next French regime should ensure it is well placed to forge a trading and diplomatic relationship with a Russia potentially looking to regroup and rebuild.

That cannot happen while the war is on and while sanctions are in place.

The other could be reports in recent weeks of Ukraine gaining the upper hand in the war, whether through its superior drone technology (which targeted Russian infrastructure around St Petersburg in June, within a few miles of the convention centre where Putin was hosting an international economic forum), or by inflicting significant casualties on Russian forces and destroying their equipment with them.

It is impossible to define the motivation behind this support for Russia, though as in the days of the Soviet Union and its fellow-travellers, it may just be because of the availability of ‘useful idiots’.

Or it could simply be down to Russian propaganda, which seems to be the party piece of Xenia Fedorova, former president of Russia’s French-language news channel, RT en Français.

From 2017 until January 2023, the network operated from a Paris suburb. Then, sanctions saw it banned throughout the EU. Those desperate to watch it can find it online.

Ms Fedorova is now in considerable demand in the French media, however, especially in those parts that lean to the right.

She has recently said that Russia could help France’s economy, and that better relations between the two countries are essential once the next president moves into the Elysée Palace next May.

Doing Putin's bidding

Emmanuel Macron’s difficulties with the network long pre-date the Ukraine war: he accused it of seeking to interfere in his 2017 election campaign, and many on the centre and left in France felt it was simply a tool used by the Kremlin to interfere in their domestic politics.

An apparent patron of Ms Fedorova’s talents is the media magnate Vincent Bolloré; Le Monde has called her his ‘Russian muse’.

She appears on his television networks CNews and Europe 1, and writes in Le Journal du Dimanche, which he owns.

France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, has accused her of “simply doing Vladimir Putin’s bidding” by using her media appearances and columns to lay the blame for the war on the Ukrainians.

France prides itself on freedom of speech, but the fault lies with those who control the media she uses in allowing her the access she has.

Most will not be taken in by it; but sadly, some will. Ms Fedorova is used to portraying herself as a victim of censorship, as she did in her recent book Bannie (‘banned’).

She seems oblivious to the obvious paradox that were a French journalist to have such access to Russian media as she has to France’s, and to put the opposing viewpoint, he or she would not last very long.

Some observers have questioned whether her appearances on right-leaning platforms could become politically damaging, especially to Rassemblent National.

Critics have called for her residence permit to be revoked, and the government is said to be considering this.

Certainly, for someone supposedly not on the Kremlin’s payroll, she is performing some exceptional charitable services for it.