Russia banned the entry into the country of two French deputies, in retaliation for the expulsion of a Russian journalist in July, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.
© Sefa Karacan/Anadolu via Getty Images
11/11/2026
by
Lusa
A Russia forbade four Frenchmen, including two deputies, to enter the country, in retaliation for France's expulsion in July Russian journalist Xenia Fiodorova, announced today the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“Moscovo decided to ban the entry of French MPs Arthur Delaporte and Sacha Houlié, in addition to two journalists from this country, Paul Gogo and Ariane Chemin, who then insisted on the expulsion of Fiodorova,” said the spokesman for the ministry.
Maria Zakharova assured that “no unfriendly action” against Russia “will be left without an adequate response”.
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.