MOSCOW
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Tuesday rejected French allegations of Russian cyberattacks, accusing Paris of seeking to revive the “Russian threat” narrative.
Zakharova accused France of portraying Russia as an “enemy” and blaming Moscow for its own economic and foreign policy failures.
She said Russia’s charge d’affaires in France had already rejected the allegations as unfounded after being summoned to the French Foreign Ministry on July 17.
“Incredibly, they were made public on the day of another meeting of the so-called ‘Coalition of the Willing’ in Paris,” she said.
Zakharova also criticized VIGINUM, France’s agency for combating foreign digital interference, for accusing Russia of interfering in the country’s 2027 presidential election.
“We see that for many candidates, the presidential race requires making loud statements about combating the ‘Russian threat’ and supporting the Kyiv regime as part of their ‘mandatory platform,’” she said.
French authorities themselves interfere more persistently in the country’s elections and democratic processes, she added.
France’s foreign digital interference watchdog VIGINUM attributed disinformation operations carried out this summer to two networks described by French authorities as pro-Russian, Matryoshka and Storm-1516, according to French media reports.
The operations reportedly targeted Renaissance leader and presidential candidate Gabriel Attal, Horizons leader Edouard Philippe and European Parliament member Raphael Glucksmann.
Attal directly accused Moscow of seeking to influence the 2027 presidential election.
“Russia wants to steal the presidential election from the French people by preventing them from making an informed choice,” the former premier said, calling the latest alleged interference operation “no surprise.”
French President Emmanuel Macron also addressed the issue in February, accusing Russia of “massively buying millions of fake accounts during election periods.”
France’s presidential election is set for April 18, 2027, with a second round scheduled for May 2 if no candidate secures a majority in the first round.
