A Russian diplomat heading to a UNESCO conference was detained at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on 6 April, French newspaper Le Figaro reported, citing a source close to the matter.
The diplomat was held and questioned, with authorities confiscating her computer and phone.
Relations between Paris and Moscow have deteriorated significantly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. France expelled 41 Russian diplomats after the invasion began, with Russia responding by expelling 34 French diplomats.
The diplomatic tensions intensified in March 2025 when French President Emmanuel Macron described Russia as “an existential threat in the long term” and called Vladimir Putin a “revisionist imperialist.”
The Russian diplomat had to spend a day in the airport’s border zone, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
The incident has prompted a diplomatic response from Moscow. Russia summoned Zacharie Gross, the second-in-command at the French Embassy in Moscow, to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Le Figaro reported that the Russian Embassy in Paris also sent a note of protest to the French Foreign Ministry.
We condemn such actions by France and consider them unacceptable,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed, according to AFP. “This further aggravates our already damaged bilateral relations.”
The French Foreign Ministry has not yet commented on the incident, according to Le Figaro.
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