As France’s 2027 presidential election approaches, Russia’s embassy in Paris rejected accusations that Moscow had interfered in French domestic politics. The embassy said Russia did not interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states.
The statement argued that France and other Western countries had intensified their unfounded accusations against Russia. The embassy claimed that rhetoric about the “Russian threat” was being used to legitimize the arming of countries through anti-Moscow policies, and argued that these policies were doomed to fail.
Response to Paris’s defense budget
Russia’s embassy in Paris also objected to the French government’s rising defense spending. It argued that allocating more funding to military expenditures harmed socially important sectors, widened the budget deficit and increased the public debt to be shouldered by future generations.
The embassy also claimed that political leaders who accused Moscow were trying to shift responsibility for problems under their own administrations onto Russia. The statement alleged that these governments had caused economic conditions to deteriorate, industrial production to decline, social inequalities to grow and purchasing power to fall.
French politicians accuse Moscow
Russia’s statement came as French officials and politicians had accused Moscow in recent months of interfering in elections. VIGINUM, France’s agency for monitoring foreign digital interference, attributed alleged disinformation operations carried out this summer to two networks called Matryoshka and Storm-1516, which French authorities described as pro-Russian.
The operations were said to have targeted Renaissance Party leader and presidential candidate Gabriel Attal, Horizons Party leader Edouard Philippe and European Parliament member Raphaël Glucksmann.
Attal said Moscow was trying to steal the 2027 presidential election from the French people. The former prime minister argued that Russia was trying to prevent voters from making informed decisions and said the latest alleged interference did not surprise him.
French President Emmanuel Macron claimed in an assessment in February that Russia had been buying millions of fake accounts in bulk during election periods.
Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s then minister delegate for Europe, also said in June 2024 that the threat of foreign interference originating from Russia was real ahead of the European Parliament elections. Barrot argued that they were facing propaganda from the Putin administration and its supporters, and that France was being targeted by coordinated efforts to influence public debate and the European election campaign.
Election timetable in France
The first round of France’s presidential election is scheduled to take place on April 18, 2027. If no candidate secures a majority in the first round, the second round is expected to be held on May 2.
