The e-mail was sent to a French mailing list on February 18 from the Fayard publishing house, the flagship of conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré's new publishing group.

"Hello, at a time when recent statements by Donald Trump and JD Vance denounce a decline in freedom of expression in Europe, Xenia Fedorova (...) offers unprecedented testimony," wrote communications director Yenad Mlaraha, in praise of Bannie ("Banned"), the book by the former head of Russia Today, the Russian channel broadcasting Kremlin propaganda and banned on European screens since 2022. "Can we still say anything in Europe?" asked Mlaraha, who from 2022 to 2023 was a communications adviser to Marlène Schiappa, when she was a minister in President Emmanuel Macron's government. Before joining Fayard, Mlaraha was recruited to join the controversial talk show hosted by Cyril Hanouna, the star presenter of Bolloré's television channel C8.

Fayard's press release was sent four days after the speech delivered on February 14 in Munich by US Vice President JD Vance, in which he both supported the Alternative for Germany (AfD) far-right party and accused European leaders of "destroying democracy" – without a word about the dictatorship and censorship practiced by Vladimir Putin, with whom Donald Trump was launching talks.

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