Russian propagandist and media manager Xenia Fedorova, former news director of RT France, is now a member of the CNews team in France. So, she can subtly relay the Putin regime’s narratives, the state propaganda of Russia, which French President Macron has described as a threat to France and Europe, including for its disinformation operations online.
Since January, Xenia Fedorova has been back on the French media stage, working for the media group owned by far-right French tycoon Vincent Bolloré. However, critics often accuse the former head of RT France of engaging in unfiltered Kremlin propaganda. She has denied these accusations.
Born in Russia, Xenia Fedorova studied journalism in Moscow. She joined Russia Today in 2006. She rose through the ranks in Russia and then Berlin. She then became head of the group’s new Kremlin-funded channel, RT France.
According to FranceInfo, a former RT employee agreed to meet with their “True or False” team and describe the channel’s editorial line. “It always had to go along with the pro-Russian line, or at least we had to make sure that the Russians weren’t attacked or couldn’t be attacked. Quite honestly, the way we sometimes treated the news was grotesque, as it either could harm the French government or highlight Russia and its people,” he said.
In her book, the former director of the Kremlin’s propaganda channel, Fedorova, looks back on RT’s ban after the invasion of Ukraine. Despite claiming to be a victim of “censorship,” she finds herself trapped in the far-right French tycoon’s all-encompassing media.
Xenia Fedorova is close to the Kremlin-leading propagandist Margarita Simonian, head of Russia’s international propaganda platform, Russia Today (RT), which is closely linked to the Russian government. Simonian is one of the regime’s leading propagandists, who helped set up RT France as a tool of interference to broadcast the Kremlin’s voice in France and appointed Xenia Fedorova in charge.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, Xenia Fedorova put pressure on RT France staff to defend the interests of Russia and Russian ruler Putin. A journalist from the TV channel testified anonymously for the magazine “Complément d’enquête” and declared that Fedorova checked absolutely every story and “showed a tremendous deal of interventionism” in their coverage of the topic. (source)
At the same time, she denies the invasion of Ukraine and speaks of a simple “special operation,” limited to the Donbass. She wrote to the team of journalists, “Be careful with the videos and claims that Russia is attacking Ukrainian cities. This information is not true. The operation solely pertains to the Donbass.”
This is part of a discourse that repeats Kremlin disinformation more widely, with Xenia Fedorova also denies Russia’s annexation of Crimea or Russian support for separatist militias in 2014, describing the Mayan revolution as a coup d’état—narratives that fit the Kremlin state propaganda.
Studies have indicated that RT France acted not as a media outlet but as a platform for foreign influence in France. In other words, it helped to spread the influence and goals of the Russian state and worked with funds from the Russian state budget.
In March 2022, the EU Council introduced sanctions against Russian propaganda media in response to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine. Under these measures, the EU suspended the broadcasting activities of Sputnik and RT/Russia Today (RT English, RT UK, RT Germany, RT France, and RT Spanish) in the EU or towards the EU “until the aggression against Ukraine ends and the Russian Federation and its associated media cease carrying out actions of disinformation and manipulation of information against the EU and its Member States.”
“The Kremlin’s systematic manipulation of information and disinformation is being used as an operational tool in its aggression against Ukraine. It is also a significant and direct threat to the Union’s public order and security,” Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy at the time, commented.
Three years after its ban, RT continues to circumvent sanctions with significant success and few resources. While the Kremlin-funded channel can no longer be accessed via satellite or cable, it can be accessed via its website, even though it is covered by the official EU ban.
Our contacts in France managed to access the RT France website (francais.rt.com) without using a VPN connection. Experts said that RT is successfully circumventing European sanctions due to national authorities’ failure to apply them effectively. In addition, RT has numerous accounts on social media networks.
At the same time, the Russian Sputnik continues to spread Russian propaganda, in particular about Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has been called a “special military operation” for more than three years. But now Sputnik publishes its biased pieces in French on the fr.sputniknews.africa domain, targeting audiences in France and in French-speaking African countries that are strategically important to the Kremlin.
Furthermore, as we have discovered in our research in 2024, RT and Sputnik circumvent EU sanctions by migrating their websites with all the content to new domains.
If you haven’t read the articles on RT and Sputnik, we can summarize the key narratives based on our analysis: “The war in Ukraine was provoked by the United States, NATO, and Ukraine; Russia was forced to launch a ‘special operation’; the West is attacking European countries, while the Russian economy is booming; sanctions are not working; Ukraine and the West have lost the war; Nazis rule in Kyiv; Macron has established a dictatorship in France; and Moscow is entitled to redraw borders militarily.”
In his address to the nation last week, Emmanuel Macron stated that “Russian president Putin’s Russia violates our borders to assassinate opponents and manipulates elections in Romania and Moldova. It conducts cyber attacks against our hospitals to block their operation. Russia is trying to manipulate our opinions by spreading lies on social networks.”
Despite the EU sanctions against Russian propaganda (in addition to RT and Sputnik, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Ria Novosti, News-Front, and Voice of Europe were banned) and strong statements and condemnations by European leaders, including the French president and the EU leadership, Russian propaganda sites continue their destructive activities in the EU with little effort.
Moreover, they have dozens of biased local friendly outlets and pro-Russian agents of influence (source) that pick up and spread the Kremlin’s narratives (newsnet.fr, reseauinternational.net, nouveau-monde.ca, mondialisation.ca, tribune-diplomatique-internationale.com, lesmoutonsenrages.fr, resistancerepublicaine.com).
