In the media
July 06, 2026
On Monday, July 6th, Le Parisien published an article on Russia's hybrid war campaign in France, drawing on a joint ICCT-GLOBSEC report. ICCT researchers Thomas Renard, Julian Lanchès and Kacper Rekawek were quoted throughout, detailing the scale, methods and objectives behind the attacks.
Renard explained that France's proxy-driven sabotage campaign only got underway once Russian intelligence services adapted to the 2022 mass expulsion of professional agents from Europe, building "network of non-professional intermediaries" to carry out low-level operations against "soft targets." He added that the goal goes beyond weakening support for Ukraine: "The central idea is that a divided society will always be slower to respond to Russia."
Lanchès, discussing the December 2022 staged pro-Russian rally in Paris, noted that the incident was part of a coordinated effort across Europe "with the aim of staging fake support in several European capitals."
Rekawek, meanwhile, pointed to Russia's use of recruits from the former Soviet space and warned that the profile of these proxies is evolving: "The destabilisation campaign we are in tends to evolve toward more ambitious targets and actions."
Read the full article (in French) here:
