France suspects Russian meddling in run-up to presidential race

Submission statement: another Russian interference attempt has been uncovered by French intelligence services, months before pivotal presidential and legislative elections as Russia ramps up its hybrid warfare against European democracies

The SGDSN, an intelligence office under the authority of the French Prime Minister, has informed prospective center-left presidential candidate Raphaël Glucksmann that he had been targeted by a destabilization campaign emanating from Storm-1516, a pro-Russian disinformation network that had already targeted center-right presidential candidate Édouard Philippe with similar methods, as well as Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in 2024, or Friedrich Merz and Peter Magyar earlier this year.

The disinformation campaign consisted in "cloning" the website of the media outlet Blast, close to far-left party LFI – a rival of Glucksmann – , and copying with AI tools the face and voice of its star reporter Salomé Saqué to announce that Blast had uncovered a conspiracy involving Léa Salamé, TV host on the main public broadcaster and Glucksmann's romantic partner, offering bribes to the network to promote Glucksmann's platform and publish articles favorable to him, thus "proving" a collusion between Glucksmann and the mainstream media, immediately shared and amplified online by bot accounts.

The campaign was denounced by Glucksmann, Blast's editorial team and LFI's leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who called on political forces to form a "common front against foreign interferences". In March's municipal elections, several LFI candidates had been targeted by disinformation campaigns originating from Israel, leading prosecutors to launch investigations on the case.

A vocal Kremlin critic, Raphaël Glucksmann, who currently serves as member of the European Parliament for the Socialists&Democrats group, is expected to announce a presidential run in September on a social-democrat and pro-European platform. The thwarted attempt highlights Russia's intensifying efforts to influence the French presidential election, ten years after pro-Russian hackers leaked Macron's campaign emails, and one week after Russian propagandist Xenia Fedorova, who had assumed important responsibilities at far-right billionaire's Vincent Bolloré's media network, was struck by a deportation order on national security grounds.