The former director of the Russia Today news channel “was at the time supposedly in charge of a media outlet, but which was a state propaganda agency,” declared the head of state.
French President Emmanuel Macron declared Thursday June 4 that Russian columnist Xenia Fedorova, accused of being the voice of the Kremlin in French media, was already in the service of the “state propaganda” Russian in 2017 and that “Things had not changed”.
“I refer you to what I said at Versailles in June 2017 quite clearly, in the presence of the president [russe Vladimir]Â Poutine in front of a person who was at the time supposedly in charge of a media outlet, but who was a state propaganda agency”he declared in reference to the former director of the Russia Today news channel. “Things haven’t changed. I think the same thing”he added during a press conference in Montenegro.
Skip the ad
“You have openly propagated”
Xenia Fedorova, who regularly defends the Kremlin’s positions in the various media of the French conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré, saw her residence permit renewed in France in 2024, which sparked numerous reactions. “It is not the president, by a sovereign decision, who calls into question the residence permits or who gives them. That’s a good thing. There are rules and procedures in our country. They must be respected”explained Emmanuel Macron.
The French Minister of the Interior Laurent Nuñez had already assured that there had been no «intervention» of the government when extending his residence permit to 2024. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot had already described the columnist as “Patented propagandist, who serves as the relay is the Kremlin’s information”.
A “Russian agent”
MEPs from the centrist Renew group have since called on the EU to take sanctions against Xenia Fedorova, “Notorious Russian propagandist”guilty, according to them, of the dissemination of “grossly manipulative narratives about the war in Ukraine and towards the EU”. Édouard Philippe, former prime minister of Emmanuel Macron and presidential candidate in 2027, judged that “relay in Paris the positions of the Russie it is to criticize the position of France”.
As for Raphaël Glucksmann (left), boss of Place Publique and possible presidential candidate, he judged for his part that it was necessary “remove the mic” believing that it was a “Russian agent” in the service of a regime which “directly threatens” l’Europe.
