Russian propaganda tries to destabilize France and drive a wedge in NATO and the EU
In June 2023, France exposed an extensive Russian disinformation campaign called Recent Reliable News (RRN), named after a pro-Russian website. Earlier in February, the French government warned about a network of about 200 portals that coordinately spread fake news about France, and the traces of all these campaigns led to Moscow. In general, disinformation about France in the Balkans is also spread from those resources and sources, with the most common topics of the narratives being French soldiers in Ukraine, farmers’ protests in France, restrictions on democracy, the image of President Macron…
In June 2023, France exposed an extensive Russian disinformation campaign called Recent Reliable News (RRN), named after a pro-Russian website. Earlier in February, the French government warned about a network of about 200 portals that coordinately spread fake news about France, and the traces of all these campaigns led to Moscow. In general, disinformation about France in the Balkans is also spread from those resources and sources, with the most common topics of the narratives being French soldiers in Ukraine, farmers’ protests in France, restrictions on democracy, the image of President Macron…
Author: Ana Anastasovska
France was, and still is one of the main targets of Russian cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns in 2024, mostly because of the European Parliament elections that took place in June, and then consequently, because of the ongoing political crisis from the extraordinary parliamentary elections that took place in July. If the Olympics are added to this, it is understandable that France has become very suitable for attempts to destabilize the country, and with that, initiate a split in the EU and NATO.
This is the conclusion of the analyses of both official Paris and experts who follow the phenomenon of intensified propaganda and harmful influences originating in Moscow.
In addition to the Kremlin’s current disinformation goals, there is a long-standing, systematic effort in the Russian and European information space to cast doubts on France’s standing with Western allies, as well as to discredit the professional and personal qualities of President Emmanuel Macron.
The interlocutors of Truthmeter.mk confirmed that Macron is one of the main targets of the propaganda, primarily because he is considered a firm and radical enemy of Vladimir Putin. But some of the interlocutors say that he himself is to blame for the “bizarre proposals” for possibly sending EU troops to the territory of Ukraine, which were not accepted by Berlin, London, or Washington, according to Professor Nano Ruzhin, former Macedonian Ambassador to NATO and a good connoisseur of France.
The Kremlin’s information manipulation tactic against France is obvious—a large part of the news related to France, which is published in Russian media outlets, is real, i.e. politicians (radical in their statements) are quoted in them, as well as reliable sources. However, what is missing in those news is the sharpness of the position taken by France, which leaves room to add the Kremlin’s narrative or to allow the reader (a consumer of the Kremlin’s propaganda) to draw their own conclusions, but without all input elements, i.e. all sides.
“RELIABLE NEWS” CAME FROM THE KREMLIN
In June 2023, France exposed an extensive Russian disinformation campaign called “Recent Reliable News”, after the name of a pro-Russian website. The purpose of this campaign, as reported by the French state agency Viginum, was to undermine Western support for Ukraine aimed at combating foreign digital interference.
According to the agency’s report, the campaign consisted of spreading pro-Russian content; impersonating popular French media outlets such as Le Monde, Le Figaro and Le Parisien, as well as government websites, including those of France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs; creating Francophone news websites with polarizing viewpoints and coordinating fake profiles to spread out the created content.
That is why, despite the blocking of Russia Today and Sputnik — media outlets financed by the Kremlin, Russian disinformation is still spreading in the EU and in France itself.
In April 2024, French EU Minister Jean-Noël Barrot warned of massive disinformation campaigns coming from Russia:
We are being bombarded with propaganda from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, he said, noting that it is there to disrupt public debate and interfere with the European election campaign.
“PORTAL KOMBAT” NETWORK
In February 2024, French Foreign Minister Stéphane Sejournet said diplomatic services had discovered a huge Russian propaganda network known as “Portal Kombat” that spreads pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian information in France, Germany and Poland.
The network of 193 websites clearly represents a campaign aimed at manipulating information on digital platforms involving foreign actors. This campaign aims to harm France and its interests, it was stated in the press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time, reported Euractiv.
The Ministry statement presents an analysis signed by the French government titled “Russian disinformation: The better we know it, the better we can respond.”
FRANCE DID NOT SEND SOLDIERS TO UKRAINE
In the last few months, especially in spring, a wave of disinformation related to France and Emmanuel Macron has been spreading in the region. The emergence of such content, as could be noticed, stopped after the end of the European Parliament elections.
Part of this disinformation related to the war in Ukraine, and in that part, disinformation related to Macron’s proposal to send French troops to the front in Ukraine was particularly popular.
At the beginning of May this year, foreign media and media outlets in the region reported “news” that France had sent troops to the front in Ukraine, relying on claims that Stephen Bryen, a former Pentagon official, published on his blog on the 3rd of May.
After Brian’s article was published by the Asia Times portal (an English-language media outlet based in Hong Kong), numerous media outlets around the world published articles which did not clearly indicate that it was a report from a blog by a former US functionary, which did not cite (official) sources.
The news was reported by some of the media outlets in Serbia, such as Pravda.rs, Politika and Borba, and the disinformation that France is sending its army to Ukraine was also reported by some Macedonian media outlets. The disputed claims spilled over into social networks in viral Facebook posts in Serbia and North Macedonia.
Such disinformation, as noted by the Truthmeter.mk team, as well as the Istinomer.rs team, is spread by private profiles, that is, by people whose Facebook profiles evidently show they are supporters of Russia and Trump and strongly criticize Western democracy.
As Associated Press fact-checkers reported, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement on the social network X (formerly Twitter) indicated that France did not sent troops to Ukraine and that it was disinformation. Their information cites blog posts from May 3rd by Bryen, who served as an undersecretary at the US Department of Defense during the Ronald Reagan administration.
The post does not attribute its reporting to any sources. Bryen published another blog post on Monday, where he acknowledged that he “could be wrong” about France’s alleged deployment to Ukraine. The earliest source Bryen cites about France sending troops is an April 12 article from a Russian military news website, which notes that it “can neither confirm nor deny this information.” It relies on reports from a Russian Telegram channel and a Russian journalist, who reportedly said the information is unconfirmed, write fact-checkers at Associated Press.
Ukrainian media outlets describe Bryen as a “Russian propagandist”, while in his texts, which he signs, he often employs anti-Western narratives.
Two to three days before the disinformation spread, French President Macron in an interview stated he does not rule out the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine. However, Macron has not yet announced sending any troops from the French army.
UKRAINE WAS NOT PREPARING AN ASSASINATION FOR MACRON
In March of this year, fake news spread that French President Macron postponed the visit to Ukraine. The reason being that the French intelligence services encountered information about his possible assassination. This alleged news was planted with a deepfake video that left the impression that it was broadcast on the French state channel France 24.
This news quickly spread in the Balkans, so colleagues from Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Montenegro reviewed the posts surrounding this topic. “Who is Macron afraid of?” is the title of the article on the Serbian portal Politika, published 4 days later, while the news outlet Borba wrote:
The publication [France24] notes that the liquidation of Macron was prepared by the Head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, on the orders of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In North Macedonia, with a less tendentious title, the news related to postponing the visit was published by Plus Info, while on Facebook, the fake news about the planned assassination percolated through the profile “Is this how the end smells” [Editor’s Note: Literal translation], which regularly posts incendiary material. The post on Facebook, was actually directly taken and translated from the X (formerly Twitter), profile of the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia, the former President Dmitry Medvedev.
Since the video was made to seem as if it is an extract from a real news bulletin by France 24, the editorship debunked the false portrayal of their colleague, on the 15th of February, a day after the material was published:
A viral video supposedly shows an extract from one of FRANCE 24’s news bulletins on its French-language channel. In it, the presenter announces that French President Emmanuel Macron has postponed his trip to Ukraine, because the French secret services had intercepted an assassination attempt against him. But this news is false, and the video a deepfake, said France 24.
In the text, a video is published with detailed description of how the video on the TV program was fixed. It says the video is taken form the news read by presenter Julien Fanciulli, broadcast on the 12th of February. Still, the voice and title tracks on the screen have been changed.
On the 14th of February, the video also spread on X, then on Telegram and also on the Russian social network VKontakte. The same day, the video was used on Russian portals, as proof of the legitimacy of the information. In the following days, news and posts were shared on social media platforms in the wider region, everywhere where mostly pro-Russian narratives are spread.
MISUSE OF THE FRENCH COLONIAL PAST
One of the Kremlin’s often used narratives against France is the misuse of its colonial past through disinformation which reminds of the past in that sense, and in another sense, spreads disinformation in order to convince the public France still practices colonialism and is still using the former colonies of Francophone Africa (which have been independent states for a long time), making it seem as if they do not want to have anything in common with their former colonial master. In that manner, at least in North Macedonia, this type of disinformation has spread on a large scale on social networks, where France is falsely accused of “forcing 14 African countries to pay colonial tax worth 500 billion dollars annually” (such a tax does not exist). Furthermore, the sum of 500 billion dollars in tax is a complete fabrication since all of those countries do not have an annual GDP of that amount, let alone pay such an amount to France. It is further added how “Putin, on the other hand, pardoned the 20 billion dollar debt of some African countries.” Of course, the post does not explain how some of those debts are decades old and it is almost impossible to collect them. To tie all this together, there is the fact that Russia needs friends during times of sanctions, as well as new African markets so Wagner mercenaries can plunder natural resources throughout the continent while supporting the dictators.
Russia, along with its mercenaries is creating serious instability in Francophone Africa and actively works on supporting dictators, as well as creating instability to enhance its influence and dismiss the French, all with the goal of allowing Wagner and the other mercenaries to exploit mineral wealth in these countries, while protecting the dictators that tolerate such exploitation, in order to stay in power as long as possible.
The coup d’état in Niger in 2023, for example, was misused for sharing disinformation in the same manner. There, there was an attempt to create an alleged hypocrisy in the West, because of the imposed sanctions on Niger after the coup d’état, while on the other hand, there was panic surrounding the fact that Ukrainian wheat was prevented from being exported to the African continent, and with that in Niger, when Russia started the aggression against Ukraine. This unfitting comparison is followed by a historical colonial map of Africa, where France holds the prominent place, especially in the western part of the continent. However, it is not explained how with the coup d’état, democratically elected authorities in Niger were removed and that the goal of the sanctions is to bring back and support the elected legitimate government, as well as the fact that there is no “starving to death” in Niger, as the disinformation says, rather, pressure put on the generals who forcibly took over the government with not-so-hidden help from the Kremlin, or their mercenaries from the African section of Wagner.
Disinformation in this regard continued, indicating a military intervention of France in Niger (that never happened), allegedly concerning the uranium and gold this African country produces, and which France wanted to keep for itself. However, it is not stated that the amounts that France imports from Niger are small, as well as the fact that there are many other suppliers of the same goods in the world. Macron is, of course, a frequent and the biggest French target for spreading such narratives regarding the alleged hostility Africa has toward France, so it is falsely claimed he was attacked with eggs during his visit to Egypt. Egypt, by the way, was never a French colony and is located in the northeastern part of Africa, but for the propagandists the fact that it is an African country is all that matters. In the framework of this propaganda offensive, disinformation also spread about the alleged tormenting of French citizens in Mali, however, the event has nothing to do with Mali, nor with the French. It took place in South America, specifically in Brazil and it is a performance act.
NARRATIVE FOR ENDANGERED DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Spreading the narrative that France is the leader in the EU of limiting freedom of speech and hindering with the democracy of citizens, which once again broke out due to the detention of Telegram Owner and Founder, Pavel Durov, is in fact, not a recent pro-Russian narrative. In the last two years, at least two times, pro-Kremlin disinformation spread on the topic of endangered democracy and freedom of speech, so what is happening with Durov and Telegram is a third attempt at spreading this false narrative.
In the beginning of July, last year, in Nanterre, the suburbs of Paris, disorder broke out after the police fatally shot a 17 year old boy named Nahel, during traffic control. Around 40 thousand police officers were deployed throughout Paris to put the protests under control, while 700 protesters were arrested. President Emanuel Macron held a meeting on the 3rd of July with representatives from the Parliament. An alleged document started spreading on the Internet, a public announcement allegedly issued by the French Ministry of Internal Affairs, which states that Internet services will be temporarily suspended during night hours, starting from the 3rd of July, in central regions, in order to prevent the misuse of social networks and online platforms and coordinate illegal actions while preventing violence.
This disinformation also pierced in our country through a personal Facebook profile, on which there is not much information about the user, but which often spreads pro-Russian narratives and disinformation that targets the EU and NATO and their partners. The news also pierced in Bosna and Herzegovina where it was addressed by fact-checkers from Raskrinkavanje.ba.
The French government denied the fake announcement. As Associated Press fact-checkers published, the government denied the credibility of the alleged announcement that circulated online and said there was no decision for an alleged suspension of social networks. On the official Twitter profile of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that announcement is noted as false.
This document is false: No decision has been taken in this regard, says the tweet.
Macron then blamed social networks for playing a significant role in the encouragement of the negative actions during the riots, which imposed long tensions between the police and young people in the country.
Large social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat should co-operate with French authorities to calm down violence which has erupted this week following the killing of a 17-year old by a police officer, President Emmanuel Macron said.
The French government, as reported by Reuters, will work together with social networks to remove “the most sensitive types of content” and asks the companies of social networks of the French authorities to reveal the identities of “those who use these social networks to call on disorders and promote violence.”
DISINFORMATION ABOUT RESTRICTED SOCIAL NETWORKS FOR USERS UNDER 18
In the eve of the European elections, in order to spread some sort of image that France is lacking in democracy and freedom of speech, media outlets and social networks in our country and in the region started piercing disinformation about Macron also prohibiting social networks or their use for French users under 18 years old.
As fact-checkers from The Quint write, the French authorities categorically rejected falsehoods about the Internet suspension in France. As The Guardian explains, Macron recommended talking about how young people use social media platforms and to introduce some type of control to prevent and stop these kind of events.
The fake news that France will prohibit social networks at the end of May also spread in Serbia, this time with the manipulation of the report by the French experts on the impact of screen exposure (electronic gadgets) on young people, which led to disinformation that French people under 18 will be prohibited from using social networks.
Certain Serbian portals published articles whose titles explain how Macron prohibits social networks, with a comment that it is a reflection of the “freedom and democracy in France.”
The report by the French expert commission on the impact of screen exposure on young people contains recommendation to limit the access to social networks for French people under 18, however, the time frame for adopting the new law is still not determined, nor is it known to which degree will the experts’ recommendations be followed, writes Istinomer.rs.
The report titled “Children and Screens: In Search of Lost Time,” was published on the official website of the Élysée Palace on the 30th of April of this year.
The President of the Republic received the conclusions of the commission of experts, which he installed on the 10th of January, 2024 and whose mission he presented during his press conference on the 16th of January. The aim of this commission is to assess the impact of young people’s exposure to screens. After more than three months of work, they presented the conclusions of their reports to the Head of State, reported the Élysée Palace.
The key recommendations from the report by the commission state kids should not have mobile phones before the age of 11, access to social networks before they reach the age of 13 should be forbidden, while for users aged 15-18 the access to social networks should be “limited” and allowed only for those with “ethical thinking.”
In the announcement by the Élysée Palace there is also a post from X in which Macron wrote on the 1st of May of this year, that he “gave the government one month to review its recommendations and translate them into action.”
The French commission (comprised of 10 experts from the branches of neurology, psychiatry, education, law, and technology, reviewed scientific literature, interviewed around 100 experts and practitioners (including representatives from companies such as Google, Meta, TikTok, Youtube, Snapchat and Samsung) and talked with 150 young people, published Le Monde.
As can be seen, the case of the boy shot at traffic control and the state’s analysis of Internet usage patterns of people under 18 despite transparency, were used by malicious pro-Kremlin propaganda to spread disinformation with the narrative of limiting freedom of speech and democracy in general.
DISINFORMATION ABOUT THE PROTESTS IN FRANCE
Disinformation also spread about various protests that took place in France. They were spread in our country by social network profiles supporters of Russia and Putin’s politics. This post, for example, falsely portrayed the protests in Paris in 2018 regarding the question of pension policy, as if they are protests from July 2023. Another picture, which is actually a picture from a Netflix TV show, was also shared as a picture from the protest in July 2023. This disinformation was also spread in Serbia.
According to Istinomer.rs, the viral picture can be traced to X accounts that are verified in such a way that their owners have paid a monthly subscription of eight dollars to “Twitter Blue.” One such Twitter user claimed that the picture shows “migrants from the Middle East” who stole a police car during the demonstrations.
The farmers’ protest was also manipulated. So, in February 2024, in Serbia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a video allegedly showing French farmers throwing garbage at the Ukrainian Embassy went viral.
The video was previously published by a few Russian Telegram channels on the 8th of February. Although it is not possible to determine with certainty who the author of the manipulated video is, the EUvsDisinfo portal states in an analysis from the 1st of February that farmers’ protests in Europe have become one of the main topics of Russian disinformation in an attempt to sharpen perceived divisions between “ordinary people” and the so-called “Brussels elites.”
In North Macedonia, on the other hand, AI generated pictures were going viral, ones which allegedly showed how French farmer’s poured bales of hay in front of the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The pictures, on both occasions, were shared by a Facebook profile, known for sharing AI generated pictures, which sometimes even have the goal to glorify Russia.
The pictures which allegedly showed the Eiffel Tower surrounded by bales of hay, were also shared in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on which topic colleagues from Raskrinkavanje.ba wrote. Raskrinkavanje (.me), Faktograf.hr and Fullfact.org also dealt with the claims about the picture’s authenticity.
Farmers in France really did protest against the government’s recommendations on changes in the agricultural sector of the country. The farmers were upset because of everything that was happening—from loan repayment plans to the significantly higher suicide rate among French farmers compared to the general population. Grain prices have fallen in the country, which is one of many other problems farmers face, France 24 reports.
All of these examples show how disinformation about France created with pro-Kremlin narratives circulate from the same blogs, portals or private profiles on social networks throughout the majority of the Western Balkans, while their root lies in networks of pro-Russian websites in France and Europe, or through Sputnik, RT, RIA Novosti as well, which are very broadly used as sources in a number of Serbian media outlets, and from there, in neighboring countries as well.
MACRON’S VISIT TO BELGRADE CHANGED THE PROPAGANDA PICTURE
Since Serbia is a significant source for sharing disinformation in the region, in the context of France, we were interested in whether something changed after Macron’s recent visit to Belgrade and the warming of relations, especially after the realization of the deal for the purchase of French fighter jets and other military equipment and weapons.
Nikola Petrovic, one of the founders and Director of the ISAC Fund, a think tank dealing with foreign policy and security issues, confirmed that there is a change:
Media outlets in Serbia that publish pro-Kremlin narratives and disinformation, in addition to those owned by Russia (like RT or Sputnik), are either pro-government or anti-government (mostly right-wing), so from there this has implications for any campaign they run, said Petrovic.
“In this case, the proposed increase in the level of cooperation between France and Serbia, with the most prominent areas of cooperation being military and nuclear energy aspects, resulted in completely different views on these events and on the visit of French President Macron to Serbia among the local media outlets: Government media outlets are now avoiding any narratives and news against France and Macron, while those against the government, and Russian-owned media outlets have increased their anti-French and anti-Macron campaign, especially immediately before and after the French president’s visit.”
According to Petrovic, “it is important to note that France is not usually at the center of the Kremlin’s anti-Western campaigns, which are usually directed at the UK, Poland, Germany or the USA.”
MACRON IS ONE OF THE MAIN TARGETS OF THE KREMLIN PROPAGANDA
French President Macron is one of the targets of Russian manipulation with information since the beginning of Russia’s war on Ukraine, which is related to his political activism in relation to Russia. Commenting and interpreting his statements and actions, the Kremlin actively tries to discredit the French president.
Russia’s disinformation and manipulation of information about France, its leader, and the country’s foreign policy stance is evidence of the Kremlin’s aim to divide Western unity on its support for Ukraine, comments Elina Vroblevska, Researcher at the Centre for East European Policy Studies.
According to her, France has naturally been singled out as the main target of information manipulation, given its influence in shaping the political agenda of NATO and the EU.
Nenad Markovic, political scientist, senior external associate and researcher at the PRESPA Institute, assesses that one of the reasons for the increased focus on Macron is the fact that he is vulnerable at the moment:
At this moment, Macron is exceptionally vulnerable. The elections in France showed that he is threatened by both competing political campuses — that of Le Pen and that of Mélenchon. On the other hand, he was long considered as the future political leader of the EU, after the withdrawal of Angela Merkel. This makes him an ideal target for Russian hybrid operations that aim to intensify polarization in European states, wherever the opportunity presents itself, and thereby cause as deep a divide and political trouble as possible in the political and social arena, says Markovic.
He believes that the political crisis will affect France itself and the strength of the EU and NATO:
“Of course, power in French society is dispersed in different centers of power, much more than it was during the period when Macron sovereignly held that power in his hands. Any further coalition between the three major political campuses in France will be unprincipled and based on negative solidarity against the third campus (most likely that of Le Pen.) It implies a more difficult functioning of the political and social arena, which will certainly affect the image of France as the leader of the EU. On internal level, of course, political anemia and “dilution” of the political situation may occur, but also, Macron may be sent into premature political retirement. This cannot pass without major political consequences and will certainly cause a power vacuum in France itself, but also in the EU and NATO,” says Markovic, who, until recently, was a member of the Security Council of the former President Stevo Pendarovski.
FRANCE IS NO LONGER THE LEADER, BUT REMAINS FIRMLY BEHIND UKRAINE
Professor Nano Ruzhin, quoted at the beginning of this research, is not quite sure that the political consequences in terms of foreign policy would be large, although he is sure that Macron’s fate is already sealed.
It is certain that, as noted by well-known analysts in France, Michel Barnier’s government will not be a minion government to Macron, who, by the way, spent his whole life trying to make such a government that would be in his function, but it is, I would say, a forced solution. This is because Macron will try as much as possible to prevent the influence of the New Popular Front, which has a different attitude towards the war in Ukraine. From there, they believe that France must not send forces there at all, but there is also certain knowledge that Barnier, although he will not blindly follow Macron’s anti-Russian positions, he will in a certain way remain in the front to help Ukraine, however, not in the measure predicted and promised by Macron, says Ruzhin.
In terms of how the Kremlin acts towards France when it comes to the information space on global level and in the region, the mentioned Elina Vroblevska, Researcher at the Centre for East European Policy Studies, says:
The Kremlin’s strategy towards France in the information space looks like weakening the “enemy” from within, casting doubt on France’s political motivation and position, questioning the leader’s personality and rationality, taking advantage of China’s foreign policy stance while flooding the information space with contradictory narratives about all of the things mentioned above.
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