Paris rejects Xenia Fedorova’s appeal

Administrative court of Paris rejected the urgent appeal presented by the pro-Russian journalist Xenia Fedorova against his expulsion and the freezing of his assets, finding that he had not demonstrated “extreme urgency”. Fedorova, under house arrest since Wednesday, simply “stated, without providing details, that the obligation to report to the authorities causes her discomfort,” the court said in a statement. As a result, “the judge determined that the condition of extreme urgency did not exist.”

Accused of being “a channel for campaigns of misinformation orchestrated by the Russian authorities” to “destabilize public order” in France, the journalist, who mainly collaborates with CNews, Europe 1 and the weekly JDNews, was the subject of measures last week expulsion e freezing of assets. “To obtain the suspension of the execution of these measures, Xenia Fedorova, who had the possibility to choose between a request for a precautionary measure, subject to the demonstration of urgency, and a request for a precautionary measure, subject to the demonstration of extreme urgency justifying the adoption of measures within forty-eight hours, opted for the latter”, the judges observed.

The reasons of the court

However, this procedure “could not have been limited to invoking presumptions not applicable to his case, but he would have had to face the serious personal consequences arising from the contested measures, which he did not do in his request”, they continued.

The accusations of the French authorities

Fedorova’s growing presence in media owned by the conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré had raised concerns about the manipulation of public debate, particularly during the 2027 presidential election campaign. The Interior Minister Laurent Nunez she specifically cited “numerous statements she has made which systematically echo the propaganda of Kremlin regarding France’s involvement, what is happening in Ukraine and the reasons and motivations of Russian aggression in Ukraine” to justify his expulsion order. Even the Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot he had called the Russian citizen an “agent of influence”.

The freezing of assets

The freezing of assets aims to prevent the commission of “further acts of interference”, explained the Ministry of Economy and Finance, by preventing the provision or use of “funds or economic resources for the benefit of this natural person and legal persons or any other entity controlled, owned or knowingly acting on his behalf”.