France warns CNews of criminal charges over expelled pro-Russian commentator

The French government issued a clear warning on Thursday to conservative television channel CNews: allowing Xenia Fedorova, the former head of Russian state media outlet RT France who was formally expelled, to return to the screen could lead to criminal prosecution. According to Agence France-Presse and France 24, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez conveyed that position in a letter to ARCOM, the media regulator.

Fedorova, 45, was formally expelled from France in August after her appeal against the expulsion order was rejected. A French court had previously ruled that she engaged in propaganda activities favorable to the Kremlin and ordered her expulsion and the freezing of her assets. Fedorova formerly headed RT France, which was banned in France after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

According to Le Monde, which reported on the letter, and to the text reviewed by AFP, Nunez accused Fedorova of “manipulating information and public debate” and of “harming the fundamental interests of the nation.” The interior minister warned that any arrangement allowing her to return to the screen would “directly violate the expulsion and asset-freezing measures and could lead to multiple criminal charges.”

CNews has nevertheless said that Fedorova will soon reappear on one of its programs by video link, according to France 24. The statement brings the French administration into direct confrontation with the media group controlled by the Bollore family. Vincent Bollore is a French conservative billionaire whose media empire has continued to expand across the country’s political and public-affairs landscape. After RT was banned, Fedorova worked as a commentator for media owned by the group, including CNews.

Fedorova denies the allegations and calls them “censorship.” She also says that she was on holiday outside France when the expulsion order took effect and therefore was never actually expelled.

The structural significance of the affair goes far beyond one person’s right to remain on television. When conservative media oligarchs and an overseas propaganda network accused of being influenced by the Kremlin converge in France’s public sphere, the state’s attempt to sever that connection by invoking the “fundamental interests of the nation” turns the dispute from a question of speech into a question of power. What happens next will test which force is stronger in France: the state’s ability to compel oligarchic capital, or capital’s ability to shape the public agenda.

It remains uncertain whether Fedorova will ultimately appear in person on a CNews program, just as it remains unclear whether the government will initiate criminal proceedings as a result.