In early 2017, French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron was targeted by an information operation run by Russian state-sponsored media outlets. According to The Washington Post, the evidence-free accusations included Macron’s alleged “nontraditional [sexual] orientation and how he took 120,000 euro from the budget to finance his movement and election campaign.” A report by the Policy Planning Staff of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Institute for Strategic Research of the French Ministry for the Armed Forces elaborates on the campaign, including an article from Russia’s state-sponsored Sputnik media outlet, which accused Macron of being a “‘US agent’ supported by a ‘very wealthy gay lobby.’” At the time of the operation, Macron was running against two pro-Russian conservative candidates, Francois Fillon and Marine Le Pen, who, according to The New York Times, were both supported by Russia’s state-sponsored media outlets.