Moscow Expands Measures Against France: Journalists and MPs Banned from Entry

Russian authorities decided to ban French journalists and two members of parliament from entering their territory, a move described by Le Monde as a new stage in the deterioration of relations between Paris and Moscow. This came in response to France's expulsion during the summer of Xenia Fedorova, a Kremlin supporter and employee at the Bolloré media group.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced yesterday, Wednesday, that it had added journalist Ariane Chemin, correspondent for Le Monde, and independent journalist and former Moscow correspondent Paul Gogo, along with MPs Sacha Houlié from the Renaissance party and Arthur Delaporte from the Socialist Party, to the list of those prohibited from entering Russia.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova justified the decision by citing what she described as the four individuals' participation in harassing Fedorova and demanding her expulsion from France. None of them were in Russia when the decision was announced, nor did they have plans to travel there in the near future.

The Russian move came about three months after French authorities decided to expel Fedorova, who worked for RT France before its broadcast was banned in 2022 following the war with Ukraine. Fedorova also worked for the Bolloré Group, which owns French media outlets including CNews.

Dispute over Fedorova
Ariane Chemin and her colleague at Le Monde, Ivan Tribenbach, published investigations into the circumstances under which Fedorova obtained a residence permit in France, and her relationship with French businessman Vincent Bolloré, whom the Russian propagandist described as her protector and who allowed her to appear through his media institutions, including CNews and Europe 1 radio.

Chemin has focused over the past five years on influence networks linked to Bolloré, alongside covering the war in Ukraine, where she investigated the massacres witnessed in the town of Bucha near Kyiv in March 2022, which the newspaper attributed to Russian forces.

Socialist MP Arthur Delaporte had previously directed a question to the French government last June regarding the granting of a residence permit to Fedorova, based on what he described as her known activity in the field of Russian influence. He considered Moscow's decision to ban him from entering its territory an acknowledgment of Russia's geopolitical interest in the matter and an attempt to intimidate French democratic institutions.

MP Sacha Houlié, close to Raphaël Glucksmann, has been working on the file of foreign interference for four years and participated in preparing a report on identifying threats, alongside a law passed in 2024 allowing the freezing of financial assets of persons involved in foreign interference activities.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot responded to the decision by affirming that Moscow would not dictate what French MPs defend or what journalists write. He called for imposing new European sanctions on Russia as soon as possible, potentially proposed on Monday, targeting the financial system, naval fleet, and disinformation networks.

Escalating Pressure on Foreign Journalists
The Russian measures did not target French journalists currently in Moscow but included Gogo, who left Russia after being unable to renew his visa last February. He had worked as a correspondent for French media outlets, including BFMTV and Ouest-France newspaper, since the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2014 and the annexation of Crimea.

Le Monde states that he was the last independent French journalist covering developments from inside Russia, after the departure or expulsion of other independent French journalists over the past few years.

The decision comes in the context of Moscow using similar measures to respond to Western steps against Russian journalists. In October 2024, Russian authorities prevented Le Monde from keeping a correspondent in Moscow for the first time since 1957, describing the step as a response to Paris's refusal to grant a press visa to a correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Dmitry Muratov, founder of Novaya Gazeta, warned that Russian authorities have revived practices dating back to the Soviet era, involving the use of Western journalists as tools in dealing with foreign governments, with the possibility of detaining them at any time.

These concerns are reinforced by the incident of Japanese journalist Yuki Imai's detention on October 13 last year inside a hotel on Sakhalin Island, where he was arrested and tried on espionage charges, facing a sentence that could reach 20 years in prison, according to the newspaper.