The French Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez, has ordered the expulsion of Xenia Fedorova, former director of Russia Today (RT) in France — a television channel funded by the Kremlin to promote its interests abroad and banned after the invasion of Ukraine — and a collaborator of several French media linked to the far right. The Government considers that her activity undermines the fundamental interests of the State and “is a particularly serious threat to public order,” justifies the expulsion decree. The Ministry of the Interior has also ordered the freezing of her assets.
The decision means that her residence permit is withdrawn and she will not be able to work. Fedorova, 45 years old and whose real name is Ksénia Borchik, appears in several media of the group of conservative magnate Vincent Bolloré, such as the television channel Cnews, Europe 1 or the Sunday newspaper Le Journal du dimanche. She had arrived in France in 2017 to launch RT in French territory.
The Interior Minister said on Thursday in an interview with RTL that the expulsion order “does not violate freedom of expression” and is “perfectly justified by the numerous statements she has made that systematically reproduce Kremlin propaganda” about the role of France, the situation in Ukraine, and the reasons for the Russian invasion of the country.
Fedorova literally reproduces Kremlin messages. She does not speak, for example, of war but of a “special operation” and accuses the countries that have supported Kiev after the invasion of prolonging the conflict. In her column last weekend in JDNews, a media linked to the same group, she said, for example, that “Europe has already paid the price” of the war in Ukraine since “since 2022 it has chosen to break with Russian energy, considered an essential element of its strategic competitiveness.”
The decree states that the commentator “tries to manipulate public opinion and undermines the trust of European and French citizens in their institutions.” Regarding the freezing of her accounts for a period of six months, the measure seeks “to prevent new acts of interference” and also prohibits third parties from providing funds or resources at her disposal or for the benefit of the entities she controls. The centrist Renew group MEPs had requested sanctions against her months ago.
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Fedorova has denounced a form of political pressure and censorship within her “work as a journalist.” Her lawyer, Emmanuel Piwnica, has announced that he will appeal the decision, both the expulsion order and the freezing of her assets, and denounces a violation of freedom of expression and “manifestly illegal” decisions. Through a statement, the workers of the Canal+ and Lagardère groups, where she collaborates, have criticized the measure and expressed their support for the Russian.
The woman has been under suspicion since 2018, shortly after arriving in France to lead RT. When she took over the Kremlin-funded media, she denounced the “biased coverage” of the media in international events.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has been denouncing interference by the Kremlin since his 2017 presidential campaign, which led him to the Élysée. Since the invasion of Ukraine, both Macron and other members of the Government have denounced the constant maneuvers of disinformation, destabilization, and propaganda by Fedorova in France, which will hold presidential elections in April 2027, for which Marine Le Pen’s far right is the favorite.
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