PARIS – The soft-spoken commentator delivered her views in fluent, Russian-accented French, as she appeared this week on one of France’s most influential television channels.

“Russia is capable of helping the French economy,” Ms Xenia Fedorova said on the rolling news channel CNews, insisting it would be “mandatory” for French President Emmanuel Macron’s successor in 2027 to maintain good relations with Moscow.

Ms Fedorova is the former head of the French arm of the Russian state-run channel RT, which was banned in France after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022.

While RT France was shut down in 2023, Ms Fedorova did not disappear from public view.

Instead, she has gained an even wider audience in France, securing a coveted role as a commentator for outlets within conservative billionaire Vincent Bollore’s media empire.

The 45-year-old appears regularly on CNews and Europe 1 and writes a column for Le Journal du Dimanche, spreading Kremlin talking points about Ukraine and the West.

As France is heading into one of its most consequential elections, the authorities, disinformation experts and journalists in mainstream media are increasingly worried about Ms Fedorova’s message.

France prides itself on freedom of speech, and Ms Fedorova’s trajectory captures a contradiction at the heart of the media landscape, where legal freedoms clash with fears of foreign propaganda.

While the authorities express frustration with the commentator’s pro-Kremlin line, there is little they can do.

“Everyone is free to choose their own editorial line,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on May 29.

“But opening up your airwaves and columns to this woman is simply doing Vladimir Putin’s bidding,” he said, however, adding his hands were tied.

“In a democracy, one can spread ...