Journalists, elected officials, advisors, diplomats… They all assiduously frequented the Elysée. Their other thing in common? They were Kremlin spies. The KGB and its successors recruited these “moles” by banking on ideology, ego, sometimes compromise, often money. They had to report everything they saw. On special occasions, they were sent to poison the “Château”. Revelations on Russian penetration within French power, up to the Presidency of the Republic, from General de Gaulle to Emmanuel Macron.
EPISODE 1 – Russian spies at the heart of the Elysée, our revelations: how the DGSI protects presidents
EPISODE 2 – “André”, the KGB spy at the newspaper “Le Monde”: the last secrets of an elusive agent
EPISODE 3 – A KGB spy alongside General de Gaulle? Investigation into the Pierre Maillard affair
EPISODE 4 – A KGB agent in the Assembly: our revelations about Jacques Bouchacourt, alias “Nym”
EPISODE 5 – Pierre Sudreau, the minister very close to the KGB: these unpublished documents which say a lot
He was one of the best informed men in Paris. For seventeen years, Jean-Marie Pelou held the influential position of head of the political department of Agence France Presse (AFP). The most important ministers and parliamentarians are among his regular interlocutors. He is used to collecting their confidences, while distinguishing between what he can transcribe and the comments which must remain “off”. “I have the best job in the world: I get paid to know everything and say nothing,” he joked, according to his grandson, contacted by L’Express. Reluctantly, the journalist delivered information to Soviet intelligence in France, according to the contents of the Mitrokhine archives, named after this defector who delivered a mass of data to the United Kingdom after the Cold War.
It appears from these documents, now available at the University of Cambridge, that every month, between 1969 and 1979, Jean-Marie Pelou submitted a written report to one of his relations. This businessman told him he worked for the Italian company Olivetti, an IT giant during the second half of the 20th century. For 1,500 francs monthly (or around 1,500 euros in 2023 according to INSEE), the journalist provides information behind the scenes of French politics, geopolitical analyzes drawn from state ministries. What he totally ignores is that his sponsor is not really a consultant for the multinational Olivetti. “Dragoun”, that’s his code name, is an important KGB agent. He recruited Pelou under a “false flag.”
This astonishing story is briefly discussed in The KGB against the Westthe work of the British historian Christopher Andrew, published in collaboration with the archivist Vassili Mitrokhine, in 1999. Certain details and the identity of the protagonists had not, however, been published. “Lan”, the code name of Jean-Marie Pelou, is described as the “most important” KGB agent at the AFP.
A porous border
The “false flag” is one of the recruitment techniques of Eastern agents. In January 2024, the writer Iegor Gran mentions it in The KGB job interview (Bayard), an investigation into an exceptional document, the handout of a spy course given in 1969 in one of the KGB schools: “Intelligence officers in socialist countries must demonstrate ingenuity and sometimes acquire the necessary skills by operating under a false flag, that is, by recruiting foreigners in the name of capitalist states and their other agencies.” Iegor Gran analyzes the reasons for this strategy: “In the midst of the Cold War, Soviet nationality is often a terrible burden for a KGB recruiter. It acts as a foil and creates an additional psychological barrier.” “When we know with certainty that the track will not cooperate with any intelligence service, we must act under a political, economic, religious or other flag”, it is also specified in the espionage breviary. In short, you have to pretend to be someone else.
This is a priori indeed the case of Jean-Marie Pelou. “He was a Gaullist,” confirms, in unison with several sources, Pierre Feuilly, an AFP journalist for forty-eight years. Born in 1920 and died in 2005, the journalist was first a correspondent for AFP in Indochina, between 1947 and 1953. Back in Paris, in July 1955, he was assigned to René Coty at the Elysée, as “attached to the information service of the Presidency of the Republic”. In 1962, when the last president of the Fourth Republic died, Jean-Marie Pelou was one of four former collaborators mandated to meet the press.
At this time, Jean-Marie Pelou officiated at the Elysée, this time only as a journalist accredited by the AFP, even if the borders apparently remained a little porous: In With de GaullePierre Lefranc, chief of staff to General de Gaulle at the Elysée between 1959 and 1963, remembers a presidential trip to the South-West organized with “Jean-Marie Pelou, deputy head of the Elysée press service” .
The “Dragoun” mystery
In 1965, the journalist became deputy head of the political department of the AFP, which Claude Imbert, future founder of the AFP, had just left. Point, then, quickly, No. 1. “He was a very good parliamentarian, very competent, also very pleasant and in control of himself”, remembers Henri Pigeat, leader of the AFP between 1976 and 1986. And well informed . In AFP: a story from Agence France PresseJean Huteau and Bernard Ullmann argue that it was Jean-Marie Pelou who obtained, in February 1975, a confidential note from Matignon announcing that Jean Marin was no longer supported by the government. According to the authors, the head of the political service, who sits on the board of directors of the AFP, himself negotiates with Michel Poniatowski, the Minister of the Interior, and the Elysée, the name of the future CEO.
Since 1959, he has been the subject of an approach by the KGB, via “Dragoun”. Information on this businessman appears scant in the Mitrokhine archives; his real name is never mentioned, only Christophe Andrew suggests that he “probably belongs to the scientific line of intelligence”. He is an “illegal” agent, without diplomatic protection. From 1973 to 1975, he received bonuses reserved for the ten best KGB agents in France.
His trap works. From 1969, the KGB reported that Lan’s “study was completed by his recruitment.” Every month, Jean-Marie Pelou therefore transmits information to what he thinks is the “Olivetti consortium”. “Lan is convinced that his information is necessary for the company to study the political and economic situation in different parts of the globe,” we can read in the Mitrokhine archives. These reports consist of “information on French government policy and analyzes on foreign policy”. The Soviet spies specify that “the information was obtained from informed circles”, and they cite the sources mentioned: (Michel) “Debré”, Minister of Defense from 1969 to 1973; (Mauritius) “Couve de Murville”, Prime Minister from 1968 to 1969, then president of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the National Assembly from 1973 to 1981; “the entourage of Pierre Messmer”, Prime Minister from 1972 to 1974; “the former advisors of De Gaulle; Jean Chauveau”, leader of the ORTF; and (Joël) “Le Theule”, deputy then minister from 1978 to 1980.
The time of doubts
Does Jean-Marie Pelou suspect something at any point? “From 1976, the information given by Lan began to decline sharply, as well as the quality which was indistinguishable from what was published in the press,” regrets the KGB. At that time, Henri Pigeat indicated that he had passed an internal vigilance order on foreign interference. “I had a keen eye for possible manipulations. I never made a note but I happened to say to so-and-so: be careful, be on your guard,” says the former manager.
The collaboration between Lan and Dragoun continued until 1979. In 1983, Jean-Marie Pelou retired, “after two years at the management of the Agency”, as advisor, specifies the AFP dispatch published on the occasion of his death.
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