Russian military intelligence has been confirmed to be involved in a campaign to discredit the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron and female politicians in Europe.
Journalist Rey, who previously claimed that Macron’s wife is a “man,” has expressed her desire to move to Russia and seek political asylum there. According to preliminary reports, she approached Russian parliamentarian Pyotr Tolstov, head of the delegation to the СE PA, who is linked to Russia’s Ministry of Defense.
In December 2021, Rey published an article claiming that she had been investigating France’s First Lady for several years. Previously, we witnessed a Russian campaign against Macron and his wife aimed at influencing the outcome of the French presidential election.
Shortly thereafter, the Kremlin launched a series of intelligence operations to push France out of the African continent and take control of the leadership in several countries previously under Paris’s influence by orchestrating coups.
More on this story: Kremlin to elbow Paris out of Africa, raising risks for France
Natacha Rey has come to our attention as an influence agent used by Russia through the French far-right. In this context, her request for political asylum in Moscow appears to be an exfiltration operation for an undercover or valuable intelligence asset. We believe that Natasha Rey may not only have participated in influence operations but also gathered information for the Kremlin under the cover of journalism. In 2021, we noted that In mid-October, the journal Faits et documents, founded by far-right activist Emmanuel Ratier, whose merits were highly valued by Jean-Marie Le Pen (Marie Le Pen’s father), published the investigation ‘Le Mystère Brigitte Macron’. Ratier is regularly accused of both anti-Semitism and racism, and supporting conspiracy theories.
The media assets of the Kremlin-linked ultra-right political forces take an active part in the current information attack.
n fact, the nature of these accusations is similar to the so-called Pizzagate spreading by Russian intelligence as part of discredit campaign against presidential candidate from the Democratic Party of the United States in 2016.
Natacha Rey presents herself on Facebook as one of the “Patriots-resistance-nationalists”, supports the far-right activist Hervé Lalin, known as Ryssen (supporting the candidacy of the Russian favorite Eric Zemmour in the 2022 presidential elections), imprisoned for his negationist and anti-Semitic remarks, and is relaying the most popular conspiracy theories in recent years (the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris was allegedly caused by Muslims, the Marrakesh Pact and the coronavirus would be “a plan of the USA and the Israeli government” …).
More on this story: Moscow picks its favorite for the 2022 French presidential elections
Russian military intelligence-linked accounts have been also detected in supporting the yellow vest campaign and conducting anti-vaccination campaigns in Europe. Russian President Vladimir Putin allowed himself to make obscure and incomprehensible hints about Brigitte Macron.
We are convinced that Russian military intelligence conducts disinformation campaigns to discredit political leaders of foreign states, with a particular focus on sexism and gender issues. Specifically, we believe that Melania Trump has also been a target of Russian operations.
Given that the Russia Today channel played an active role in such operations—and is widely known to be used by Russian military intelligence for its psy-ops—the involvement of Russian intelligence in discrediting First Ladies becomes evident.
More on this story: Russia intensifies subversive activity against France
