Russia bars French MPs Houlié, Delaporte and journalists Gogo, Chemin

Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced on 11 November that it was barring French lawmakers Sacha Houlié and Arthur Delaporte and journalists Paul Gogo and Ariane Chemin from entering the country.

Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova presented the bans as retaliation for France’s expulsion of Xenia Fedorova, the former head of RT France, and alleged that the four had harassed her, France 24 with AFP said.

Delaporte is a Socialist Party politician. Chemin is a senior reporter at Le Monde, which she joined in 2011 and where she covered politics and social issues before becoming a senior reporter.

France’s earlier expulsion order

France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez ordered Fedorova’s expulsion in July 2026, accusing her of relaying Russian propaganda in an attempt to attack the country’s fundamental interests. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot described her as an “agent of influence.”

Fedorova denounced what she called censorship against her, while Moscow had pledged for months to retaliate against what it called persecution. RT France, the French version of Russia’s state-run broadcaster RT, was banned in France after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.