Napoleon launched a massive invasion of Russia in 1812, but its failure led to his defeat and Russian dominance in Eastern Europe.

Russia also wanted to dominate the Ottoman Empire, but France and Britain fought and won the Crimean War (1854–1856) to prevent that.

Headed by the steward Pyotr Potemkin, who had an audience with Louis XIV and Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the embassy discussed the establishment of mutually beneficial trade relations between the two countries.

The first diplomatic representation of Russia in France appeared in 1702 by decree of Peter I, who was interested in an alliance with Louis XIV due to the rapprochement between England and Sweden.

A visit to France by Peter I himself in 1717 served as the starting point for the establishment of permanent diplomatic relations between the two countries, interrupted only by the French Revolution.

Concerned about the dominance of the Germans at the court of Empress Anna Ioannovna (1730–1740), French diplomacy actively promoted the palace coup of 1741 and the enthronement of Elizabeth of Russia, who from her youth sympathised with France and King Louis XV, whom she had unsuccessfully tried to marry.

An active role was played by the Marquis de la Chétardie, who served as diplomatic envoy to the Russian court from 1739 to 1744.

However, after the efforts of Chancellor Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin, de la Chétardie fell into disgrace and in 1748, the influence of the pro-French party weakened noticeably.

Franco-Russian diplomatic ties began in 1702, when France Jean Casimir Baluze as ambassador and the Tsar sent Peter Postnikov to Paris.

There was some tension when the Russians took an interest in Malta, in the center of French control of the Mediterranean, and Paris made sure the influence was limited.

[12] Russia gave financial support of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Syria and Palestine, while France aided Catholic mission work.

The intellectual mood in France feared Russian expansionism, military strength, and a premodern Asiatic (or "Tatar") perspective that hated the Enlightenment roots of Western European culture.

Following the Crimean War, Napoleon III tried hard to reach a friendly entente with Russia, and succeeded in so doing with a secret treaty signed in March 1859.

[18] However, when the January Uprising broke out in Congress Poland in 1863, France sent a series of notes to Russia demanding reforms and ended the 1859 entente.

The First and Second Three Emperor's Leagues of the 1870s and 1880s-which brought together Germany, Austria and Russia-had as its stated purpose the preservation of the monarchical order in Europe against the France of the Third Republic.

The United Kingdom was still pursuing its "splendid isolation" foreign policy and after a major agreement in 1890 with Germany, it seemed favourable toward Berlin.

Negotiations were increasingly successful, and in early 1894 France and Russia agreed to the Franco-Russian Alliance, a military pledge to join in war if Germany attacked either of them.

In December 1917 France broke relations with Bolshevik Russia and supported the White Guard in the Russian Civil War.

[27] The rapid growth of power in Nazi Germany encouraged both Paris and Moscow to form a military alliance, and the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance was signed in May 1935.

A firm believer in collective security, Stalin's foreign minister Maxim Litvinov worked very hard to form a closer relationship with France and Britain.

[28] When Germany invaded the USSR in 1941, Charles de Gaulle emphasised that Free France supported the Soviet Union.

[29] Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev made a visit to France in October 1985 in order to fix the strains in the Franco-Soviet relations.

As a response, François Hollande and Vladimir Putin agreed on ordering cooperation between their respective armed forces against the terrorist organisation.

The French President has called upon the international community to bring "together of all those who can realistically fight against this terrorist army in a large and unique coalition.

[38] A Russian newspaper recalled that "WWII had forced the Western World and the Soviet Union to overcome their ideological differences", wondering whether ISIS would be the "new Hitler".

[39] A poll conducted by YouGov in 2015 found that only 15% of French people believed that the Soviet Union contributed most to the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, a decline from 57% in the same survey in May 1945.

[42] The two leaders also agreed on "the importance of favouring a diplomatic solution to the present crisis and doing all possible to achieve one," according to the Élysée, with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov meeting "in the coming days.

[43] On 5 June 2022, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire stated that France is currently in talks with the United Arab Emirates, intending to replace Russian oil imports due to the imposition of the European Union ban.

Macron's government has urged a "sobriety plan" to conserve energy rather than seek better diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation.

[46] In 1980 France's domestic intelligence service, the DST recruited KGB officer Vladimir Vetrov as a double agent.