France Threatens Russia with sanctions after banning journalists and MPs

O french Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot today threatened to impose more European sanctions on Russia, after Moscow denied two journalists and two French Members.

In a message on social network X, Barrot criticized the Russian authorities' decision to prevent the entry of journalists from Le Monde and Ouest France, as well as Arthur Delaporte and Sacha Houlié.

Moscow’s decision is explained by the fact that the four of them have stood out “in the protection of our democracy against Russian attempts to interfere in our public debate,” he said.

Barrot pointed out that the fact that Moscow presented the measure as a response to the expulsion of Russian journalist Xenia Fiodorova from France in July — accused of being a Kremlin propagandist — confirms “the links it maintains with the Russian authorities”.

The minister added that on the European side the position is “clear”: since 2022 Russian parliamentarians supporting the “war of aggression against Ukraine” have been prevented from entering the European Union.

In addition, “from Monday, we will adopt new European sanctions against Russia,” he stressed.

The spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, justified the decision by the fact that journalists and MPs “have insisted on the expulsion of Fiodorova”.

Zakharova assured that “no unfriendly action” against Russia “will go unanswered.”.

In July, the French authorities ordered Fiodorova to leave the country after having accused it of spreading false information and propaganda in favor of the Kremlin, the Russian Presidency.

The French Ministry of Interior at the time claimed that the actions imputed to Fiodorova undermined the French State and undermined confidence in the European and French institutions, according to the Spanish EFE agency.

Fiodorova was responsible for the French edition of the Russian television chain RT (Russia Today), whose broadcasts were banned in the European Union (EU) after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian diplomacy said at the time of expulsion that the measure was not a surprise, claiming that France had been searching for “the Russian footprint behind all the country’s problems”.

After the suspension of RT emissions in Europe, Fiodorova began to collaborate with the French media CNews, Europe 1 and Le Journal du Dimanche.

At the end of September, the EU adopted sanctions against Fiodorova which included the ban on entry into the territory of the 27 Member States and the freezing of its assets in European banking entities.