Why France is a target for Russian spies

Last week was a good time to bury bad news in France. While French and international media were focused on president Macron’s Trump-like maverick statement of not ruling out western troops being deployed in Ukraine, a new book slipped out detailing the extent of KGB spying in France during the Cold War. Ironically this was also a week in which Macron and French authorities publicly warned of France being a privileged target of Russian intelligence agencies, through large-scale hacking, manipulation of social media in everything from the French ‘bed-bug scandal’ to the June European elections. Combine this with prime minister Gabriel Attal’s charge in parliament that the Rassemblement National – coincidentally with a 15-point lead in the polls – are the agents of Russia and the cocktail becomes explosive. It does so because France has form for being a soft target for Russian manipulation of politicians, civil servants and journalists. 

In 1999, the Cambridge historian Christopher Andrew and the Soviet defector Colonel Vasili Mitrokhin published a remarkable volume entitled, The Mitrokhin Archive: the KGB in Europe and the West.