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France has issued a deportation order for Xenia Fedorova, a Russian author and television commentator known for espousing pro-Kremlin positions on media outlets owned by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
Fedorova ran the state-backed Russia Today in France before it was shut down by the government shortly after Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The 45-year-old pivoted to appearing regularly on Bolloré’s CNews, a rightwing 24-hour news channel, hosting a show on Christian values and commenting on the news on various programmes.
Casting herself as a free speech advocate demonised by the French mainstream, Fedorova often relayed Russian talking points such as blaming Europe for provoking Russia into attacking Ukraine, calling the war a “special operation” and accusing the Baltic states of glorifying Nazism.
Bolloré, a devout Catholic who built his fortune as a corporate raider, has built a media empire in France to further what he sees as a civilisational fight to save the west. He modelled CNews on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News with the explicit goal of countering what he dismisses as leftwing media groupthink.
The billionaire holds sway over other media assets, including Hachette Books owned via Lagardère, pay-TV outlet Canal+, and Europe 1 radio.
Bolloré has become a particularly influential supporter of Fedorova. His Fayard book imprint, which is part of Lagardère, published Fedorova’s autobiography titled “Banned” last year. His Journal du Dimanche newspaper features her weekly column, while her appearances on CNews have given her a much bigger platform than when Russia Today was still on the airwaves.
According to an official at the interior ministry, Fedorova’s lawyer was presented with a ministerial expulsion order on Wednesday. The newspaper Libération first reported the news.
France considered that “by disseminating her narratives, [Xenia Fedorova] acts as a conduit for disinformation campaigns directed by the Russian authorities”, said the order.
“Her conduct undermines the fundamental interests of the state” and her presence in France “therefore constitutes a particularly serious and current threat to public order,” it said.
Fedorova’s lawyer did not return a request for comment.
Pierre Lévy, a former ambassador to Russia, said that Fedorova’s nearly 20-year tenure at state-backed Russia Today meant she was a part of the Kremlin efforts to influence views in Europe even if she was not explicitly an intelligence asset or agent.
“She is an instrument of soft power of Russia, and even if she is not guided directly by Moscow, she is programmed with its views,” he said. “This is a front in the hybrid war that Russia is fighting against France.”
The French government move against Fedorova comes after months of media reports on her growing influence within Bolloré’s media outlets and after critics argued the interior ministry should not have given her a long-term residency permit in 2024.
With nine months before presidential elections to succeed Emmanuel Macron, critics fear that Bolloré’s media machine will promote far-right candidates and their priorities, such as slashing immigration and defending French identity from so-called “woke” leftists.
Asked in June why Fedorova’s residency had been renewed, Macron said such matters were not for a president to decide, but referred back to a public exchange with her at a press conference during a 2017 visit by Putin to the Versailles Palace. At that time, Macron said Fedorova “claimed to be running a media outlet, but it was in fact a state propaganda agency”.
“Things haven’t changed. I think exactly the same,” he said.
A government official said the order immediately revoked Fedorova’s residency permit, meaning she could no longer work or live in France.
She has been placed under house arrest at her apartment in Paris and is required to report to the authorities every day, the person added.
“Xenia Fedorova is a journalist,” her lawyer, Emmanuel Piwnica, told Agence France-Presse, adding that she would “immediately file an appeal” against the expulsion order. Fedorova could not be reached for comment.
CNews and Lagardère said they were “astonished” by the decision, which they said “would constitute a particularly serious attack on freedom of expression and the plurality of opinions”.
Bolloré’s media organisations have staunchly stood by Fedorova. “We are giving her our support, just as we would any journalist targeted because of their origin, their background or their views,” two of its top executives wrote in the Journal du Dimanche in May. “Freedom of expression is, above all, the freedom of those who do not think as we do.”
