The sanctions against Yulia Mendel are not really about one former spokesperson. They are about how the Kremlin recruits a Ukrainian passport as a deniable asset for its hybrid war inside the European far right. The operation is already moving.
The Asset Logic
Mendel is being tested as a media battering ram and a liaison to pro-Moscow ultra-right movements in France and Germany, with the whole of Europe as the target. Direct Kremlin contact with certain European political groups discredits those groups too fast. A Ukrainian face solves that problem.
Mendel can provide the bridge between the Kremlin and parts of the European political establishment while carrying less immediate risk for everyone involved. Her Ukrainian passport and her manufactured image as a victim of the regime make her harder to sanction and harder to block than a Russian propagandist.
Her Ukrainian passport and her manufactured image as a victim of the regime make her harder to sanction and harder to block than a Russian propagandist.
Replacing Fedorova
The comparison with Ksenia Fedorova is instructive. Fedorova, the former RT France editor deported from France in July, was doing similar work. But she was Russian. So the French state eventually removed her, and everyone she touched got publicly stained with Kremlin cooperation.
Fedorova worked through the media network of Vincent Bollore, placed former RT employees into French media structures, and cultivated ultra-right media networks ahead of the 2027 election cycle. Mendel is the replacement asset, moved into the same channels after Fedorova was burned.
The Preparation Sequence
The preparation followed a clear sequence.
- May: the Tucker Carlson interview. That was the legend-building phase. Mendel repeated that she would now be persecuted, fixed the victim narrative, and simultaneously signaled operational readiness to the Kremlin. The reputational hit against Zelenskyy was secondary. The point was to launder her as a usable asset.
- June: relocation into European ultra-right circles, mainly France. This coincided with Fedorova's deportation. Mendel was introduced through Fedorova's old channels, including the Bollore network. Le Journal du Dimanche, which has a documented role in laundering former RT staff into Bollore's media ecosystem, gave her the first legitimizing interview.
- September 16: the operational debut. Mendel is scheduled to be the star speaker at an Alternative for Germany event inside the European Parliament building. The organizer is Hans Neuhoff, an AfD deputy and a longtime acquaintance of Medvedchuk. Other pro-Moscow ultra-right figures from across Europe will be in the room.
Mendel gets the main speech. That is her formal introduction as a legitimate voice for the European right, and the moment she acquires operational mobility across the continent.
The Sanctions Calculus
The RNBO sanctions are a double-edged move. Sanctioning her before September 16 hands her a fresh victimhood prop for the speech. She will use it. But the counterargument is stronger.
Without a Ukrainian sanctions designation, any push for EU-level sanctions later would lack a foundation. The goal now is to delegitimize her before the AfD event and to build the legal track for European restrictions. Ideally, the next step is EU sanctions and eventual repatriation to Ukraine, where investigators can establish when and how she was recruited, who else was involved, and what operational tasks the Kremlin assigned her.
A Recruitment Pipeline
This is something other than a personal drama. This serves as a recruitment pipeline. The Kremlin is replacing deported Russian propagandists with Ukrainian assets who can move more freely through European institutions and far-right networks.
The 2027 elections in Germany, France, Poland, Italy, and Spain are the target. The infrastructure is already in place. Mendel is one node in it, and the European Parliament is about to host her debut.