Russian Disinformation Campaign Targeting French Public Opinion

What do fake news on Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska’s multimillion-euro sports car purchase and made-up offers of money to vote for President Emmanuel Macron in the French snap elections have in common? They were all cooked up by the Kremlin in what is an ongoing all-out assault on French public opinion, researchers claim.

Massive Hybrid Strategy to Disorient and Confuse

Scores of freshly registered websites, some made to look like mainstream outlets, have been publishing everything from deepfakes — near-seamless videos created using the latest technology to convince the viewer of the most outlandish claims — to generative AI writing impassionate fringe content and reports on real-world acts of subversion in a massive-scale hybrid strategy to disorient and confuse those unsure of who to support in the French electoral double-header.

Spoofing Legitimate Outlets to Gain Trust

On 9 June, the French far-right National Rally trounced Macron’s party in elections for the European Parliament. The party formerly known as National Front has historically pursued a subtle policy of being friendly with the Kremlin. For the Kremlin, both Le Pen and Bardella were a much more palatable choice in France than Macron, who is a staunch supporter of Kyiv in its attempts to defend itself from Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion. The Kremlin did so by furthering the goals of its disinformation campaign dubbed Doppelgänger, meant to change the public opinion against Ukraine, to outright social engineering in the heart of Europe by means of encouraging and fuelling the extremes.

Stars of David, Bloody Hand Prints, and Coffins at the Eiffel Tower

The Russian campaigns sowing anti-French disinformation began online in the early summer of last year but first became tangible last October when more than 1,000 bots linked to Russia relayed photos of graffitied Stars of David in Paris and its suburbs. A French intelligence report said the Russian security agency FSB ordered the tagging, as well as subsequent vandalism of the Wall of the Righteous, a memorial to those who helped rescue Jews from the Holocaust, with at least two dozen red hand prints meant to imply Jewish blood on French hands.

Paris Up in Arms

Meanwhile, Paris has warned many times that what it was dealing with in 2024 was again coming from Moscow. French authorities have been increasingly warning this might happen as they have observed the escalation first-hand for months.

More Platforms, More Problems

In March, Czech authorities imposed sanctions on the Prague-based website Voice of Europe for spreading Kremlin propaganda. The site allegedly used the influence of mostly far-right, pro-Russian European Parliament members who engaged with the outlet. Following Brussels’ own sanctions against Voice of Europe, social media companies like Meta and Google have removed its channels from their platforms. However, the network remains active on platforms such as Telegram and X and has even managed to restore its website.