Is Russia carrying out attempts to destabilize France?
Questioned by TF1 on this question, Jean-Noël Barrot, the Minister Delegate for Europe, is categorical.
It's a yes.
The minister notably returned to the bedbug psychosis which spread in France last fall.
A case that went around the world in the run-up to the Olympic Games in Paris.
VIDEO.
Bedbugs: when France became the laughing stock of the world
“The bedbug controversy has been artificially amplified on social networks by accounts which have been established to be of Russian inspiration or origin, with even a false link created between the arrival of Ukrainian refugees and the spread of bedbugs,” he explained, adding that this was “largely amplified by accounts linked to the Kremlin.”
At the time, amateur photos and videos reporting the presence of these insects had flooded social networks from mid-September.
For 2 years, France has been targeted by vast fake news campaigns originating from Putin's Russia.
As the elections on June 9 approach, they will multiply.
We will systematically detect and denounce them.
Everyone must remain vigilant.
pic.twitter.com/66r1XioqS6
— Jean-Noël Barrot (@jnbarrot) March 1, 2024
And at the time, these bugs transformed into a matter of state.
In October 2023, at the end of an interministerial meeting, Olivier Véran, then government spokesperson, assured that “all ministries” were “at work and mobilized on this subject”.
Olivier Véran had promised "decisions and guidelines" in order to "respond to the legitimate anxiety of the French" on bedbugs, which are the subject of growing concern in public opinion.
Seven schools and classes had been closed but all the cases reported, some in a cinema seat, some on a train seat, were far from all being proven.
Cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns since the war in Ukraine
For Jean-Noël Barrot, Russia's cyberattacks and disinformation operations have “started to accelerate two years ago, since the start of the war in Ukraine”.
“We know this because the President of the Republic created in 2021 a service called Viginum whose mission is to detect these maneuvers which aim to destabilize public opinion in France and weaken public support for Ukraine “, he explained.
France also condemned in November "Russian digital interference", this time denouncing the role of a Russian network in the "artificial amplification and first distribution on social networks of photos of the tags" of Stars of David reproduced on buildings in the Paris region.
This interference took place in the middle of the conflict between the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Israel.