France has shut down a wild conspiracy peddled by the Russian foreign ministry that Europe’s leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, were doing cocaine together on a train into Ukraine.
The claims centre on a video in which French president Emmanuel Macron picks up a white tissue from a table and German chancellor Friedrich Merz retrieves a coffee stirrer. Sir Keir is seen smiling on the opposite side of the table.
The Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote a lengthy diatribe on social media site Telegram over the weekend in which she claimed the video was evidence that the trio had spent the train journey doing cocaine and had forgotten to remove the drug paraphernalia. She claimed the tissue was a bag of cocaine and the stirrer was a spoon used to consume the drugs.
As part of their updated strategy of publicly addressing Russian-peddled fake news, the French government responded to the claims on X, writing: “When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs.
When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs.
— Élysée (@Elysee) May 11, 2025
This fake news is being spread by France’s enemies, both abroad and at home. We must remain vigilant against manipulation. pic.twitter.com/xyXhGm9Dsr
“This fake news is being spread by France’s enemies, both abroad and at home. We must remain vigilant against manipulation.”
The post was accompanied by two photos depicting the tissue in question and a photo of Mr Macron shaking hands with Sir Keir. “This is a tissue for blowing your nose,” the caption for the first photo read. “This is European unity to build peace,” read the second.
Russian officials and bloggers have frequently peddled the false idea that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and other major European leaders are regular cocaine users, in an attempt to discredit those who oppose Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Ms Zakharova regurgitated those spurious suggestions in her post on Telegram, seizing on initial claims by pro-Kremlin bloggers on Telegram.
Earlier this month, France said this was part of a wider cyber strategy from Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU, to destabilise Western society. Paris said the GRU has stepped up those efforts more recently.
“[The GRU] infiltrates French digital networks with two aims: collecting intelligence for the benefit of the Kremlin and destabilising our society by creating distrust,” the foreign ministry said.
The recent arrival of Mr Macron’s new international spokesperson Jean-Noël Ladois has ushered in a fresh, more aggressive approach from Paris against online Russian disinformation. Instead of ignoring the ridiculous claims, they are now opting to call them out.
The French president has been personally targeted on multiple occasions by Russian disinformation, including rumours that he is homosexual, that his wife Brigitte was born a man and that he is part of a deep state cabal backed by George Soros, the financier.
The change in approach comes after conspiracy theories that originated in Russia, claiming Mr Zelensky used US aid to buy two luxury yachts, were repeated by members of the US Congress last year, while debates were going on about whether to pass additional military aid to Kyiv. The final package under former president Joe Biden was delayed by eight months by dissenting, pro-Trump figures in Congress, some of whom shared the conspiracy theories about Mr Zelensky buying luxury yachts. The delay in weapons left Ukraine’s armed forces outgunned on the frontline and contributed to Russia regaining the initiative.
Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Merz’s trip to Ukraine culminated in a call for Mr Putin to agree to a 30-day ceasefire and a pledge to slap more sanctions on Russia should the Kremlin refuse to agree to a halt in the war.
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