France summons Russian ambassador over cyber campaign

Paris – 13 July 2026: France intends to summon the Russian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry in the coming days. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot justified the move on Monday by citing a large-scale cyber campaign attributed to Russia. It was said to have targeted sabotage and espionage and affected around ten European countries, including France. The minister did not specify a date for the diplomatic summons.

Barrot also told BFMTV-RMC that sanctions against nine individuals and four organizations linked to the cyber activities were being prepared or had been decided. He provided no further details on the names of those affected, the legal basis, or when the measures would take effect. The announced summons is initially a tool of diplomatic protest; it means neither a break in relations nor the expulsion of a diplomat.

The French government is thus continuing its significantly more assertive policy of public attribution in cyberspace since 2025. On 29 April 2025, the Foreign Ministry explicitly attributed the APT28 group to the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU. According to French authorities, the group’s activities since 2021 had targeted around a dozen French institutions, including public services, private companies, and a sports organization involved in the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Paris also referred at the time to earlier cases: the attack on television broadcaster TV5Monde in 2015 and attempts to destabilize the French electoral process in 2017. The public naming of a foreign intelligence service marked a shift in policy. Previously, France had generally described technical attack patterns in such allegations or joined joint statements by European partners without naming a state actor so directly.

France’s National Agency for the Security of Information Systems, ANSSI, also warned in 2025, together with international partners, of an increased risk to Western logistics and technology companies. According to the agency, actors linked to APT28 have increasingly used digital access points in these sectors since the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The current case therefore fits into a broader European conflict over espionage, influence operations, and critical infrastructure.

For French foreign policy, the response combines three dimensions: the public attribution of technical attacks, coordination with European partners, and diplomatic pressure on Moscow. The effectiveness of the announced sanctions will depend on whether they actually restrict those affected from accessing financial resources, traveling, or obtaining technology. There was initially no official response from the Russian Embassy in Paris to Barrot’s announcement.

The summons comes against the backdrop of persistently tense relations between Paris and Moscow over the war against Ukraine. France no longer views cyber operations solely as a security issue for authorities and companies, but increasingly as part of state strategies of influence and destabilization. With the now-announced summons, Paris aims to make this connection visible at the diplomatic level as well.