In today’s Vatnik Soup, we introduce Vincent Bolloré, a French billionaire and media tycoon. He’s best known for building a powerful media empire and for reshaping editorial lines across French media and publishing, pushing them toward far-right and pro-Kremlin positions. 1/25
Born in 1952 in Boulogne-Billancourt to a family of industrialists, Vincent studied law at Paris Nanterre University. He took over the family business and turned it into a sprawling conglomerate spanning logistics, port infrastructure in Africa, advertising, and media. 2/25
Bolloré’s African logistics empire also became the subject of a long-running corruption investigation in France. Legal proceedings against Vincent Bolloré personally are still ongoing, with a trial planned in December, after a judge refused to approve a plea deal. 3/25
His holdings grew through aggressive acquisitions and tight managerial control. Bolloré gradually took control of Vivendi, giving him influence over major channels and outlets including Canal+, CNews, Europe 1, and publisher Editis. His net worth is now around €9.5 billion. 4/25
The expansion of his media empire did not go unopposed. Over 600 French film industry figures, joined by international stars from Juliette Binoche to Javier Bardem, have now signed an open letter warning about Bolloré’s growing control over French media and cinema. 5/25
Bolloré’s influence also expanded into radio with Europe 1, where editorial direction and staffing were overhauled. Another major backlash occurred at Éditions Grasset, where over 200 authors walked away or refused future publications after leadership changes by Bolloré. 6/25
Bolloré’s TV channel C8 was the subject of repeated controversies and regulatory sanctions. The channel was fined €3.5 million and ordered to comply with rules on editorial independence when a guest was insulted by the presenter and prevented from criticizing Bolloré. 7/25
Journalists and insiders have accused Bolloré of directly influencing editorial decisions and reshaping programming. One of the most visible shifts came at CNews, which moved toward opinion-heavy programming and culture-war topics, turning into a right-wing partisan channel à la Fox News. 8/25
Supporters have argued that the channel is now covering issues such as immigration, insecurity and Islamist extremism that the French media establishment had long underplayed, while critics have accused it of sensationalism, populism, and promoting hard-right narratives. 9/25
While not formally aligned with any party, describing himself simply as a Christian democrat, Bolloré’s outlets have promoted convergence between the French right and far-right, including an alliance between Les Républicains and the National Rally during the 2024 election cycle. 10/25
Bolloré is also a longtime friend of Nicolas Sarkozy, whose presidency was marked by close ties to business elites. Their relationship drew criticism after Sarkozy vacationed on Bolloré’s yacht in 2007. Sarkozy has also been defending Putin. 11/25
Blurring the line between journalism and political advocacy, the Bolloré media have increasingly promoted Russia-friendly figures. Putin fans like Éric Zemmour were given prominent airtime, boosting their national profile. CNews even had to pay a €200,000 fine for his hate speech. 12/25
After the closure of Russian state propaganda media RT France, many of its former employees found a new home on Bolloré’s media. An especially outrageous case, promoted to preposterous degrees with astonishing bad faith, is Xenia Fedorova, its former director. 13/25 bsky.app
France 🇫🇷 : CNEWS la voix de Moscou🧵 CNEWS se dit être le porte-voix de la liberté, d’être l’étendard des patriotes. En réalité, cette chaîne est devenue le chien de garde du Kremlin et répand le narratif de V. Poutine sans sourciller. CNEWS est le nouveau Russia Today⤵️ 1/20
At RT, Xenia was a protégée of Margarita Simonyan herself, who openly calls to bomb civilians, dreams of famines, and proclaims war against the whole of Europe. Hybrid warfare is already ongoing: France, as a key EU power, has been a major target of these attacks. 14/25 bsky.app
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian propagandist, Xenia Fedorova (@xfedorova). She’s best known for running Russia’s state propaganda media in France, and then writing a whole book to whine about how it got shut down by the EU after Russia invaded Europe. 1/16
With Bolloré, at first Xenia was hosting a Canal+ series on Orthodox churches in France, while her former employer, Putin’s Russian state, bombs them in Ukraine, and tries to get control of all the French ones. Boundless hypocrisy: 15/25 bsky.app
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll start a new series titled “Degenerate Russia”. In it, we look behind the Kremlin propaganda and see the real Russia – an authoritarian country that doesn’t care about its people and desperately tries to hold on to its imperialistic past. 1/22
Despite being promoted every week, across multiple platforms, free to say whatever Kremlin lie, she still has the nerve to complain about “freedom of speech”, without ever mentioning what happens to it under her dear Putin: murdered journalists and filtration camps. 16/25
And on Bolloré’s channels, she exerts a decisive influence over their coverage of geopolitical issues. Guests who go against her are not invited any more — here goes freedom of speech again. Basically, Bolloré put his whole empire at her service, that is… 17/25
… at the service of the Kremlin propaganda she has spent her whole career promoting. Her book, of course, was published by a Bolloré publisher, even ghostwritten by a Bolloré ghostwriter. Her series on churches is on a Bolloré TV channel. Her opinion articles, in a Bolloré newspaper. 18/25
Rushing to her defense? Bolloré’s employees, who have the nerve (or were instructed?) to gush about her “long journalistic experience”, when she’s had… one employer before Bolloré: war criminal Putin, working as a producer/director, not even pretending to be a journalist. 19/25
The Kremlin has long had strong influence on both far ends of the French political horseshoe: the far-left (with historic pro-Soviet/Stalinist currents) and the far-right (receptive to narratives around migration and antisemitism, both stirred up by the Kremlin as well). 20/25
Directly controlling the mainstream center has proved harder, so Kremlin efforts have instead focused on attacking Macron with AI-generated smear campaigns, drug allegations or conspiracy theories about his wife, the same tactics used against Zelenskyy. 21/25 bsky.app
Dans la #vatniksoup exclusive d’aujourd’hui, nous présentons une opération de propagande du Kremlin typique orchestrée à l’aide de sites entiers générés par IA, de vidéos deepfakes, de super-propagateurs sur les réseaux sociaux et de blanchiment de fausses informations. 1/30
In this context, Vincent Bolloré is a key player in bringing Kremlin narratives into the mainstream, shifting the Overton window to be receptive to Kremlin propaganda. Just like RT France aimed to do, but in an even more insidious way than their former open presence. 22/25
Why is Bolloré ridiculing himself and his staff like this by letting a Russian career propagandist so openly spread Putin’s BS? He claims it’s all for money, not politics, merely letting his people tell “the truth” (sic). But one thing’s for sure: by de facto… @valeriehayer.bsky.social 23/25
…putting his media empire at the service of war criminal Putin’s “Vladivostok to Lisbon” imperial ambitions, Bolloré has handed him an even more dangerous weapon than he ever had with RT France. Follow @vatniksoup-fr.bsky.social for this soup in French & exclusive content on French vatniques. 24/25
Russia spends $5 billion a year on propaganda to manufacture support for its invasions through vatniks and narratives such as those now pushed by Bolloré’s empire. Fact-based research to counter it takes time and effort — please support our work: 25/25 vatniksoup.com
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