Zakharova calls European accusations of Russian involvement in protests 'self-exposure'; European leaders differ on foreign role in the unrest

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday 22 October that statements by European politicians blaming Russia for their own internal problems were “a marker of self-exposure”, RIA Novosti reported.

“As soon as the story starts that this was invented or done by, that it is the fault of the Russians, of Russia and so on… you can be in no doubt about what level of rhetoric, what level of madness we are dealing with,” Zakharova said in an interview with the Vesti news service (our translation). Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had earlier said that no one takes seriously what he called “absurd accusations” of Russian involvement in protests in Europe, RIA Novosti reported.

European officials have described the foreign role in the recent unrest in France, Italy and other countries in different terms, Euronews reported. Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said the riots in Milan were “the result of what I call a ‘hybrid war’ that someone is waging in our nations” through TikTok, social media and YouTube. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the high-school protests in France had been “exploited by hostile narratives emanating from Russia, China, Iran, and the MAGA community”. President Emmanuel Macron said: “There is no evidence of foreign interference in the events that took place. However, there has been foreign manipulation of information in the aftermath.”

An EU official told Euronews the European Commission had no “definitive confirmation” that foreign information manipulation was behind the events. A report published on Wednesday by the non-governmental group Alliance4Europe said a Russian network had posted at least 600 coordinated messages before the 17 October protests in France, franceinfo reported.

For the latest on the protests in France, see our running report.