Foreign interference: deputies and senators privileged targets of spies, warns internal intelligence

Elected officials potentially targets of foreign spies. The director general of internal security (DGSI), Nicolas Lerner, warned deputies and senators against attempts to approach foreign intelligence agentsin particular Russians under diplomatic cover, for espionage or interference.

During his hearing behind closed doors on February 2 by the National ***embly’s commission of inquiry devoted to foreign interference and made public on Thursday, Nicolas Lerner argued that “in the current global context”, France was “particularly exposed attempts at espionage and interference”.

He particularly highlighted Russia, which “historically” has the “largest” system for infiltrating “intelligence officers under diplomatic cover, benefiting as such from immunity” in a number of Western countries. But since the start of the war in Ukraine, the number of these undercover officers has been “significantly” reduced.

All targeted camps

Regarding France, Nicolas Lerner claimed to have “detected over the past three or four years”, “attempts to approach on the part of certain intelligence agents and targeting the entire political spectrum”.

“An intelligence-gathering agent, at least in espionage or interference activities, is not limited in terms of targets of interest,” he stressed. This is how, he added, “parliamentarians from across the political spectrum” have been the subject of such approaches.

In such cases, he explained that he had met “certain parliamentarians, ministers or former ministers to draw their attention, without any idea of ​​censorship or opposition, to the risks that there could be for them to attach their name to such a company or to join such a board of directors”.

Approaches of “seduction or conviction”

Former Prime Minister François Fillon had resigned of two boards of directors of Russian giants, Sibur (petrochemicals) and Zarubeshneft (hydrocarbons). He must be heard by the commission of inquiry on May 2.

Stating that in general the interferences were “individual steps of seduction or conviction” on the part of foreign agents, Nicolas Lerner argued that the DGSI took them into account “every time” that it detected them.

Citing no names, the director general said that it had “been able to happen very occasionally that the DGSI uncovers or suspects relations of another type between an elected or former local or national elected official with a foreign power, and reports to the competent authorities the suspected offense – in this case, a financing -, the follow-up of which is not part of its mission”.

“According to my information, he continued, there are individual approaches and some people have been able to enter into a relationship that French law does not allow – I have a few examples in mind”.

China also singled out

Nicolas Lerner mentioned the case of French parliamentarians traveling to the Donb*** (eastern Ukraine) to supervise electoral operations. RN MEP Thierry Mariani made several of these trips.

Two investigations have been underway in Paris since 2021 for suspicions of corruption and influence peddling on the one hand and breach of trust and money laundering on the other, targeting the Franco-Russian Dialogue ***ociation co-chaired by Thierry Mariani and Yves Pozzo di Borgo, a former centrist senator.

For the Director General, “accepting to serve as a guarantee for a supposedly democratic and transparent process amounts to crossing a threshold in terms of allegiance to the country concerned”. “Several parliamentarians and former European parliamentarians have recently behaved in this way, and some elected officials have clearly maintained clandestine relations with intelligence services,” he said.

However, Nicolas Lerner said that the DGSI considered “today that no political party (was) in the hands of a foreign power”. For him, Russia and China are “the two states with the most successful intelligence policy”.