Russian journalist married to French citizen at risk of deportation after France denies her residence permit

France's Hérault prefecture has refused to grant a residence permit to Irina Ananina, a journalist for the independent Russian outlet Vot Tak, even though she applied as the spouse of a French citizen, according to Vot Tak. Authorities gave no explanation for the decision.

Ananina, who left Russia in 2021 as the authorities’ crackdown on independent media intensified, married French national Bertrand Bollet shortly after settling in France and applied for a residence permit right away. Her case was registered in January 2024 and took more than 2.5 years to process. Last week, she received both a rejection and an order to leave the country.

“The whole situation looks completely absurd and almost farcical,” Ananina said. “At one point, when the prefecture had gone silent for a long stretch, the mayor of the town where my husband and I got married sent an official letter to the Montpellier prefecture confirming that he had registered the marriage and that we live together. Even that led nowhere in the end.”

Her lawyer, Dmitry Zakhvatov, called the refusal unlawful, arguing it violates the rights of both Ananina and her husband. He said the legal team intends to challenge the decision in court.

Ananina said prefecture staff had hinted to her in an informal conversation that her Russian citizenship could complicate her legalisation. She stressed that she has no intention of seeking political asylum — what she wants, she said, is “to get to the truth”.

Before working with Vot Tak, Ananina worked at the newspaper Delovoy Peterburg and at the St. Petersburg bureau of liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy.

Vot Tak is part of Polish public broadcaster TVP and airs on the frequency of Belsat, another TVP project that Russia has designated an “undesirable organisation”. Because of that affiliation, Ananina could face criminal prosecution in Russia if she is deported.