Russia Today, or how the voice of the Kremlin wants to be heard in the French media

“Working in Paris? That’s fantastic! A city with such a heritage, it is a dream destination!” Raves correspondent Russia Today (RT) in Paris, Anna Baranova, though assaulted by a stranger so that it covered, Tuesday 17 May, a demonstration against the labor law .

If the Russian journalist answered the questions of francetv info via Twitter, his French colleagues in Paris France Editorial Russia Today, they have not responded to our requests. The Francophone Russian site at which it lends the ambition to launch a TV in France, seems to cultivate the secret. Yet it arouses curiosity by its growing presence in new social networks.

An example ? On March 24, in Paris, a police dealt a violent blow to a young demonstrator near the Bergson school. The next day, in retaliation, some of his friends throw sticks and metal bars against the windows of the police station in the 19th arrondissement. Unknowingly, they were filmed by a journalist of RT in French , the French version of Russia Today. Broadcast live via the app Periscope, images are published on the website under “wild demonstration of students against police violence.” Siglées RT France,   they will be taken on the same night by 20 hours of TF1.

A doped hearing by the demonstrations against the Labour Law

With the rise of protests against El Khomri law RT France has also become one of the most watched on Periscope media. With 54,665 subscribers (2.4 million like) on 23 May, he is ahead TF1 (53,953 subscribers) or M6 (40,828 subscribers).

A performance which welcomes President of Russia Today France, Irakly Gachechiladze, joined by francetv info: “We are the second media Periscope account in France.” He attributes this hearing to a strong presence on the ground: “We sometimes only filming Misbehaviour Night standing and our pictures were taken over by other media. “ “O ur goal, he says, is to be present on all possible platforms and apps, Periscope, Facebook Live, etc. We launched our account Snapchat it a week ago.”

100% financed by the Russian state, the international channel Russia Today, which celebrated its tenth birthday last year and already broadcasts in English, Arabic and Spanish, has launched its website in French in 2015. D ‘ first with an essay based in Moscow, more than a dozen people, that translates content in french. Then, in spring 2015, with an essay based in Paris.

Paris will be writing in June 15 people, including 13 journalists, who must know everything: shoot, edit, write.

Audience? “Everyone. It does not sort the public. At the base, there is a general media,” Irakly Gachechiladze answers. But with the will of a different view:   “On international issues like Syria, Libya, France RT brings the vision of Russia. In France, we prefer topics that are not covered elsewhere and do a lot of live video with Periscope.”

A pro-Russian and pro-Putin relay for “réinformer”

The “Russian” vision and offset with the French media, the RT French site assumes the full. This is, in a tradition inherited from the Cold War to convey the “soft power” distilled by the Kremlin, and counter US influence. “There have always been Russian-language media in France and Europe, c is a rather old media presence, “analyzes for francetv info Françoise Daucé, director of studies at the school of higher studies in social sciences and Director of the Centre for studies of Russian, caucasian and central European.

“Before 2000, continues the researcher, it was the radio Voice of Russia, the Russian equivalent of Voice of America, who assumed the role. Then the arrival of the internet has changed the situation in a tougher environment between Russia and the United States, including Ukraine and Syria. the Putin government asks the Russian media in the West carry a policy of “re-information” of public opinion against the Western media deemed too subject to the American influence. “

A reputation for opacity

Serving in a foreign land, chains and Russia Today sites are being willingly in besieged citadel. “Those who work there are instructed to not answer questions from the outside,” said Françoise Daucé. Not easy, indeed, to have access to journalists from Russia Today based in Paris. Twitter identifiable by the initials RT contiguous to their name, they do not answer questions.

Opacity confirmed by Clement Detry, former journalist of Russia Today France based in Moscow. This independent journalist now working for the show “The Chronicles of Jacques Sapir” on Radio Sputnik, a Russian speaking media that depends, as RT, the state holding Russia today. He explained that he could not speak to francetv info if he still worked at RT:   “This is the direction that communicates, period.”

As for content, it is driven from above: “There is no discussion in writing and it is rare that journalists propose a subject It is a vertical operation, with a strong guardianship. . “journalists are recruited, he says,” either through public jobs – I have an acquaintance who has been engaged to Paris like that – or by more or less political networks, instead of right . and extreme right, which I know not much, at least it happened like that in Moscow: the far right is overrepresented in the French community in Russia this is the kind of profile that can then land at. RT France or Sputnik. Many come, like me, of the Institute of international Relations in Moscow, the equivalent of France Sciences Po, which depends on the Russian Foreign Ministry. “

What was his job at RT France in Moscow? “I was corrector editor. The first activity was to translate into French the items on Russia Today Ukraine and Syria. The Chief Editor was just beginning to develop the editorial line for drafting based in France, when I left in June 2015. on the French news, it is not yet very readable, in my opinion. They are interested in the issue of migrants, Tafta negotiations, trying to give a platform to the FN without sounding xenophobic. “

How successful? “RT France speaks to some fairly radical audiences, far left, but mostly on the far right,” Judge Françoise Daucé.

Convergence with the National Front

The far right has also the galleries on the site. Chroniclers as historian Bernard Lugan, contributor site Boulevard Voltaire, co-founded by the mayor of Beziers, Robert Ménard, it publish their tickets. And leaders of the National Front are willingly interviewed there. “There was a great turn with the President of the National Front, Marine Le Pen, who has approached the Russian government and is willing to recognize the Crimea [annexed by the Russian], says Françoise Daucé. in Ukraine, on Syria, on the anti-American positioning, national sovereignty, there is convergence between Russia and the national Front. “

Questioned on the subject, Irakly Gachechiladze confirms that “content that Marine Le Pen [who nevertheless said phase” diet “media] has granted an interview “ at the site, published on 20 May. “But if others do, that’s good, whether left, right, whether sovereignists, Gaullists … “

Supported by French politicians and intellectuals

The site can boast other support. With the academician Hélène Carrère d’Encausse and LR MP Thierry Mariani, economist Jacques Sapir, who advocates leaving the euro, is part of the ethics committee to ensure transparency and plurality of future channel Russia Today France. This is explained by mail to francetv info:

I agreed to give my support and security to RT in French because I think this is a string of information provided pluralism in France.

He added: “I also appreciate enough the work of RT in English and I’m interested to see how the ‘rentiers’ the French system, that is to say, TF1 and France Télévisions, react to a chain of this quality. “

And Thierry Mariani, why has he agreed to be part of this ethics committee? Contacted by francetv info, MP from abroad French gets angry: “When a state is funding a TV is to give his views on current issues France 24 is used to carry the voice of France.. in a communication of war, the Russians finally bring the same level as the Americans. Russia Today has the merit of making other lights, for example on the Middle East. Al Jazeera was accepted with a big smile, but with the Russians, we have common values, especially Western civilization. “

Russia is closer to that of Qatar!

A news channel project continuously

No offense to Thierry Mariani, there is one notable difference: Al Jazeera, she waived launch a channel in French. Which is not the case of Russia Today. An emissions permit has been granted by the CSA in December 2015. Russia Today France will therefore start his chain when she decides. Left to add a news channel in French audiovisual landscape already bloated (BFM TV, iTV, LCI , future information from France Télévisions chain, but also France 24, the French-Israeli I24news chain …).

The real reasons of ignition delay, admits frankly Irakly Gachechiladze are budgetary: “I can not tell you when this channel will be launched: it does not depend on Russia Today France, but Moscow But it will not. 2016: we do not have the necessary budget it amounts to just over one million euros, which pays just local and wages. “.

We can expect a launch in 2017, but I do not have the exact date.

According to the weekly Challenges , it would unlock at least EUR 20 million to launch the channel. Hence the need for Russia Today France, into overdrive on the web to convince Moscow. W ith an area of development all indicated: the video. RT claims to be the “most watched news channel” on YouTube , with 3 billion views. In the smaller part of the Hexagon, Irakly Gachechiladze had entrusted Challenges will “upload more videos shot by RT in France, five or ten a day.”

A francetv info, he said: “Before the launch of a TV, we have the time to establish ourselves in the market with the site and applications The number of subscribers on Facebook and Periscope rises rapidly, as has the number. people speak of us in France “Its objective.” hundred and fifty thousand visitors per day on the site “the threshold needed to convince the Kremlin to loosen the purse strings.?