Riots in France: what victims told the press, and why Moscow's hand is behind them

The news

On 20 October 2026 Meduza published a feature (text), compiled from Western press accounts, on the riots in France. On 17–18 October protests against the rising cost of living were accompanied by unprecedented unrest: some participants, mostly young men, smashed and looted shops, pharmacies and restaurants.

• By the government’s count, at least 3,000 businesses across France were damaged. In Paris, rioters tried to smash Louis Vuitton’s windows on Place Vendôme; Burberry, Hermès and Graff boutiques were wrecked. Galeries Lafayette chief Nicolas Houzé said he had not seen such violence since the “yellow vests” in 2018.
• Pharmacist Odélia Sitbon, whose pharmacy near Place de la République was ransacked twice: “There is nothing worse than watching your life’s work destroyed in 20 seconds.”
• Assia Sana of rue Étienne-Marcel lost all seven of her shops; police told her “not to tie up the line”. In Lyon, police never came to Marie Choquet’s jewellery shop. Aline Li’s bar La Barrique was wrecked and set on fire; she saw children among the looters. A fundraiser for Lyca Mobile shop owner Hasan Robiul raised over €90,000.
• More than 2,300 people were detained. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez admitted he expected about 200,000 protesters but at least 500,000 turned out; around 60,000 police were deployed. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin blamed the far left; Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said most of those held in Paris “are silent and make no political demands”.

The Meduza feature does not mention Russia.

Context: Russian provocations and sabotage abroad

• France. Since 2023 France has seen a string of provocations: Stars of David sprayed in Paris (2023), red hands on the Holocaust memorial (2024), coffins at the Eiffel Tower (2024), pigs’ heads at nine mosques (September 2025). The prosecutor in the red-hands case called it an attempt to destabilise France “orchestrated by Russian intelligence” (BBC, Politico). Serbia arrested 11 people who, its interior ministry said, acted on instructions of a foreign intelligence service (Guardian).
• Germany. In April 2024 two German-Russian nationals were arrested in Bayreuth on suspicion of plotting arson and bomb attacks on military and industrial sites, including US facilities, for a contact linked to Russian intelligence (Federal Prosecutor).
• Poland and Lithuania. Poland’s government said the May 2024 fire at Warsaw’s Marywilska 44 shopping centre was arson ordered by Russian services; the same group burned an IKEA in Vilnius (Gov.pl, Reuters).
• Illegals. In the 1 August 2024 swap Russia got back the Dultsevs, who lived in Slovenia posing as Argentines with Argentine passports (BBC). Brazilian police exposed a network of Russian intelligence officers holding genuine Brazilian documents, including Sergey Cherkasov and Artem Shmyrev (BBC Brasil).
• United States. In 2022 the US Justice Department charged Aleksandr Ionov, who prosecutors say acted under FSB direction and used US political groups to interfere in domestic politics (DOJ).

Sardaana News editorial position

The events Meduza describes did not happen without provocations by Russian special services and their agents. Moscow has spent years destabilising France, and riots in French cities serve its goal.

FSB agents operate in Europe, the USA, Canada, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Australia, Japan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. They often hold those countries’ passports, live ordinary lives and secretly work for Moscow, carrying out subversion. They are especially active in Germany, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Canada, the USA, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Brazil; in the USA, especially in the New York area.

Kremlin propaganda on Russian state TV reaches part of the Russian-speaking diaspora, including in Brooklyn and Brighton Beach, where some older emigrants are poorly integrated and nostalgic for the USSR. Yet many emigrants oppose the regime, and they are the first to suffer from this propaganda.