France soon exposed 193 websites on the Internet designed to reduce aid to Ukraine (also in Germany and Poland) behind which a Russian company operating in Crimea is hiding. A few days later, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Russian air traffic controllers had threatened to shoot down a French aircraft patrolling the Black Sea.
In recent months, France has seen an intensification of Russia’s campaign to further divide society, discredit the state and provoke the country’s military. According to French sources, Russian security services painted stars of David on the walls in order to increase trilateral tensions. In March, cyber attacks temporarily disrupted the work of some French state websites, and hackers leaked data from the country’s employment service. Aided by Russian sympathizers inside France, Russian troll farms began spreading false reports of bed bugs infesting Paris; using video exchange technologies, fabricated lies about the attempt on E. Macron’s life and spread rumors about the country’s first lady, Brigitte Macron.
