In football, we call it scoring an own goal. During the debate with Gabriel Attal and Manuel Bompard on Monday evening, Jordan Bardella confirmed that he wanted to ban certain senior civil service jobs from dual nationals for reasons, according to him, of national security. While the Prime Minister denounced this measure, the head of the National Rally retorted: “You want to put a Franco-Russian at the head of a nuclear power plant, isn’t that a matter of national interest to you?” An argument prepared in advance, supposed to be able to sweep away the accusations of racism which rightly pursue his party.
Lack of luck, Gabriel Attal expected such a response. “If this is a measure that concerns Franco-Russians in sensitive positions, can you tell the French who are watching us who Ms. Tamara Volokhova is?” questioned the Macronist in return. And to continue, facing a stunned Jordan Bardella: “She is your advisor to the ID (Identity and Democracy) group in the European Parliament, who represents you in the Foreign Affairs Committee on security and defense issues. She happens to be French-Russian, attending closed-door meetings with classified information about the war in Ukraine. […] The reality is that your proposal does not at all concern Franco-Russians in important positions. […] With the RN on dual nationality, Tamara is yes and Rachida is no.”
If, before this Monday evening, the name of Tamara Volokhova meant absolutely nothing to the general public, it is a little better known to Alsatians. This 34-year-old Russian of Ukrainian origins, who arrived in France when she was 17 and naturalized in 2016, presented herself several times in Bas-Rhin under the colors of the National Rally, on the sidelines of her activities in the European Parliament. She appeared on the far-right party lists in the 2020 municipal elections, then was a candidate in the 2021 departmental elections alongside a claimed vocal double of Johnny Hallyday, and in the 2022 legislative elections.
“A clear security threat to the European Parliament”
On several occasions, his links with certain Russian personalities have been denounced. In March 2021, Rue 89 Strasbourg traced Tamara Volokhova’s career with the far-right Identity and Democracy group in the European Parliament. The online media outlet relied on an investigation by Ukrainian researcher Anton Schekhovtsov, which showed that the Franco-Russian had, among others, worked for MEPs Aymeric Chauprade and then Thierry Mariani, both known for their pro-Russian positions. She also accompanied them to Russia on several occasions when they served as pseudo-international observers to legitimize Vladimir Putin’s elections, such as the referendum in Crimea in 2014 or for the constitutional reform in 2020 that allows him to remain in power until 2036.
For Anton Schekhovtsov, Tamara Volokhova is part of a Russian strategy to infiltrate European institutions and represents “a clear security threat to the European Parliament”, given the access it has to the work of Parliament’s committees on foreign and European defense issues. The person concerned described these accusations as “grotesques”.
In 2023, Mediapart put a part back in the machine. No investigation by an independent researcher this time, but a “note from the DGSI”dated March 2019, “pointing the finger at four members, current or past, of the National Rally”. According to this note, Russia is seeking, through “relay of influence in France”has “to spread an anti-European, anti-NATO discourse, which denounces the “decadence” of globalized Western societies, and which makes Russia the sole guarantor of conservative “values””.
Here again, the names of Aymeric Chauprade and Thierry Mariani stood out. Just like that of Tamara Volokhova. The accusations are the same: participation and organization of trips to Russia for her and far-right MEPs, sometimes at Russia’s expense. “At the time also, the employee was, according to the DGSI, “in contact with Alexeï Kovalski”, then political advisor to the Russian ambassador in Paris”also detailed Mediapart. The investigative media also noted that Alexeï Kovalski is considered by the French services as a “spy” of the SVR, the Russian intelligence service.
Near Mediapart, Tamara Volokhova did not wish to speak. But the president of the RN delegation to the European Parliament, Jean-Paul Garraud, denied contacts with Alexeï Kovalski and assured that she had not “no particular relationship which could be assimilated to espionage”. According to him, Tamara Volokhova has no “only wrong” what “to have dual Franco-Russian nationality”.
