BANNER: The ODC TV YouTube channel. (Source: ODC TV)

A Morocco-based YouTube channel is platforming sanctioned Russian ideologues and pro-Kremlin propagandists to French-speaking audiences. Despite hosting sanctioned content, the channel remains available throughout the European Union (EU).

Since 2022, the channel Ondes de Chocs TV (“Shock Waves TV” in French, also known as ODC TV) has amassed more than 10.5 million views and 124,000 subscribers, and has published 252 videos. The channel posts content to both YouTube and Rutube, and has featured high-profile individuals under international sanctions, including Russian political philosopher Aleksander Dugin. Among its releases is a documentary that the channel’s founder, Morocco-based influencer Rachid Achachi, worked on while visiting the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), where he attended a meeting of the French Club in Moscow organization.

ODC TV has additionally hosted fringe and extremist French-speaking influencers with ties to the French far-right, including Alain Soral, convicted in France for holocaust denial. The channel additionally featured French combatants who fought in the Donbas and individuals who reportedly served as fake election observers.

On June 29, 2024, ODC TV published a documentary in Russian with French subtitles entitled “Katehon: the Russian world, the return to the roots.” Using a VPN, we found that this video remained accessible from French territory and IPs. The documentary features appearances by Dugin. The video was also reposted on the website and Rutube channel of Paideuma.tv, which is reportedly affiliated with Dugin. The documentary advances a pro-Kremlin interpretation of the 2014 “declarations of independence” made by the self-proclaimed Donbas “people’s republics” and builds on Dugin’s ideological concept of Russkiy Mir (“Russian world”).  The video description, available in French and Russian, frames Russia’s actions in Ukraine as an “uncompromising opposition to Western hegemony and the reign of the Antichrist.”

Dugin has been sanctioned by various governments including the United States in 2015, the European Union in 2022, and the United Kingdom in late 2025.

The documentary was also mentioned in an article posted to Geopolitica.ru, a portal affiliated with Dugin, which has also been sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

On November 1, 2024, ODC TV published another documentary titled “DONBASS: Vanguard of the Russian world,” a one-hour film in English and Russian that was directed by Achachi. The documentary features Dmitry Sidorov, Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth of the the LPR, Vladyslav Deynego, the former Foreign Minister of the LPR, and Dugin. Both Sidorov and Deynego have notably come under international sanctions issued by the EU, Switzerland, the UK, Australia, New-Zealand, Canada, and Japan. The film was also published on Rutube in Russian.

A September 10, 2024 EADaily report, citing the Luhansk Information Center, states that Achachi traveled to the LPR to shoot the documentary as part of a delegation from Comitas Gentium France-Russia. On September 16, Karine Bechet-Golovko, President of Comitas Gentium France-Russia and a French RT columnist, published on the organization’s website about a meeting of the French Club in Moscow held in Luhansk on September 10. The document lists Achachi, Bechet-Golovko, and Sidorov among the attendees. Images from the event show banners quoting Putin saying, “the borders of Russia do not end anywhere,” alongside materials from the Russkiy Mir Foundation.

Since December 2023, ODC TV has published a series entitled “HEGEMON.”  The series is a collaboration between Achachi and Bechet-Golovko. Almost every episode opens with a 2022 snippet of then-French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire declaring “[we] are going to wage total economic and financial war on Russia.”

At the time of writing, the playlist, which included thirty videos, had amassed more than 1.2 million views. The most-watched video was published on June 5, 2024, and is entitled “HEGEMON EP7: NATO/Russia, the war has formally started,” referencing Ukrainian strikes on  Russian territory using US-supplied weapons.

The second most-watched video in the playlist was published shortly after the March 2024 Crocus City Hall terror attack in Moscow. The video, which has amassed more than 176,000 views, is entitled “HEGEMON EP4: Moscow terror attack, has the CIA punished the Russian people?” The video description alleges that Ukrainian, American, British, or Israeli intelligence services could have been behind the attack. Despite the Islamic State claiming responsibility for the attack, Russian officials have often alleged the attack was organized by Ukraine; an accusation deemed baseless by Ukrainian authorities. The hypothesis of the involvement of the Islamic State is described as “a diversion” in ODC TV’s video description.

Other hosts and interviewees of the channel include French combatants in the Donbas region François Mauld d’Aymée and Erwan Castel. Achachi also interviewed Xavier Moreau, a prominent pro-Kremlin propagandist who also worked for RT France and frequently appears on media outlets that operate as relays for Kremlin messaging, such as Afrique Media TV, which the DFRLab has previously reported on. In December 2025, Moreau was also sanctioned in the EU and Ukraine for “[acting] as a mouthpiece for pro-Russian and pro-Kremlin propaganda, spreading conspiracy theories about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for example accusing Ukraine of orchestrating its own invasion in order to join NATO.” Moreau’s videos are also published regularly on RT France’s website. RT France notably lost its broadcasting license in 2022. Mauld d’Aymée and Moreau also reportedly served as fake observers during the 2018 elections organized by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.

Moreau and Bechet-Golovko also publish content on geopolitical analysis websites, primarily Stratpol and Russie Politics. Both feature the tagline “Les Français parlent aux Français” (“The French speak to the French”), a reference to the BBC’s French radio broadcast during World War II that was used to share coded messages and counter Nazi-Germany propaganda in occupied France.

At the time of writing, ODC TV had 2,588 subscribers on Telegram and 2,400 on Facebook. Despite the Facebook page’s stated location in Morocco, Facebook Page transparency data indicates that the page was managed from both France and Morocco.

While ODC TV’s Facebook page has reportedly never run ads, Facebook Ad Library records show that in 2023 Achachi ran an advertisement promoting an ODC TV video on the topic of “Islamic finance.” The ad was taken down due to the absence of a required disclaimer.

Several pro-Kremlin French-speaking influencers featured on ODC TV were previously associated with Revue Méthode, a French-language journal based in Donetsk that began publishing in 2015 and ceased operations in December 2021. Originally presented as an academic outlet, the publication evolved into a platform promoting pro-Kremlin and conspiratorial narratives.

Achachi has hosted controversial Franco-Swiss far-right figure Alain Soral on multiple occasions. Soral, who has been convicted in France for hate speech, antisemitic insults, Holocaust denial, and contempt of court, appeared on the channel in 2024 and 2025.

In addition, the channel also hosted Xavier Poussard, described by Le Parisien as an investigative journalist based in Italy, who characterized the 2024 Paris Olympic Games opening ceremony as a “Satanic ritual.” Poussard co-authored the book Devenir Brigitte (“Becoming Brigitte”) together with American influencer Candace Owens, advancing  conspiracy theories regarding the gender of First Lady Brigitte Macron. The French presidential couple has since filed a defamation lawsuit against Owens.

ODC TV’s continued availability across the EU illustrates how sanctioned Russian actors can reach Western audiences through third-country proxies, exploiting the gap between EU sanctions enforcement and content moderation on global video-sharing sites. The channel’s network of propagandists, far-right extremists, and figures tied to Russian state influence operations represents one mechanism through which Kremlin-aligned narratives reach French-speaking audiences in the EU.

Valentin Châtelet, “Morocco-based YouTube channel acts as French-language proxy for sanctioned Kremlin propagandists,” Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), April 7, 2026, https://dfrlab.org/2026/04/07/morocco-based-youtube-channel-acts-as-french-language-proxy-for-sanctioned-kremlin-propagandists/.