France ordered the deportation of Xenia Fedorova, the former head of RT France who’s lived in the country for nearly a decade and regularly shares Russian-friendly viewpoints on French media platforms, on the alleged grounds that her opinions are actually disinformation aimed at destabilizing society. To be sure, any country can deport whoever they want for whatever reason they want, but the optics for France are terrible in this case since the country presents itself as a bastion of Western values.
These same values include the freedom to express contrarian political views within reasonable limits, none of which Fedorova has crossed since she never called for violence and has no ties to any foreign intelligence agency such as Russia’s. “Instill[ing] doubt about the legitimacy of the support provided to Ukraine”, which is what Fedorova revealed is one of the accusations against her, amounts to criminalizing critical views about French policy towards the NATO-Russian proxy war that’s being fought there.
France nowadays plays an outsized role in the Ukrainian Conflict. From extending its nuclear umbrella eastward to Poland per its new policy of “forward deterrence” to giving Ukraine targeting intelligence on Russian infrastructure deep within its universally recognized borders and even planning to deploy troops to Ukraine after a ceasefire, France has done its utmost to become the most meaningful anti-Russian member of the EU. This in turn risks a conventional clash with Russia that could spiral into World War III.
Those French media that platform Fedorova want to inform the citizenry of these stakes for the purpose of generating a national conversation about French policy towards the NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine. This doesn’t mean that they’re pro-Russian, isolationists, or traitors like their critics might smear them as, just that they evidently don’t believe that the existing policy suits French national interests. Drawing attention to the drawbacks associated with it is precisely what Fedorova does.
Likewise, precisely for that reason, France’s planned deportation of her is purely political. While she could hypothetically continue being platformed remotely by the media that support her, kicking her out of the country is meant to make them think twice about it seeing as how she’s now persona non grata. Similarly, average French who share her criticisms of their country’s policy towards the Ukrainian Conflict might self-censor for the same reason, thus further suppressing the sharing of contrarian views about it.
Next spring’s presidential election adds another political dimension to this decision. It’s almost certainly the case that the authorities fear that her critical takes could influence the electorate into not supporting whoever Macron signals should be his successor. If that individual doesn’t win by hook or by crook due to the protest vote being “too big to rig”, then French policy towards the NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine could decisively change, thus throwing a wrench in the establishment’s plans.
Ultimately, France’s planned deportation of Fedorova further discredits Macron’s government and the Western values that it espouses, though it remains unclear whether it’ll inspire enough French to oppose him that they come to constitute a “silent majority” that sweeps the opposition into power next spring. In any case, the example that the authorities want to make out of her signifies that critical views of their policy towards the Ukrainian Conflict have been de facto criminalized, which is a terrifying development.
