“Ideally for the Russian authorities, the main goal remains to increase the public’s distrust toward their political elite and their media, in order to end up paralyzing the decision making process,” said Julien Nocetti, a research fellow who specializes in Russia at the French Institute for International Relations.

Others said the launch of the channel could bring fresh air to a crowded yet homogeneous media landscape.

“RT France is going to reach a very limited audience and its repercussions will be minimal, but a contradictory voice never hurts,” said Thierry Vedel, a researcher on media pluralism and democracy at Sciences Po. He added that France’s four main news channels shared a similar agenda, making it unusual for them to provide innovative coverage.

“A new vision is always interesting, until it becomes dangerous,” he said.

A prerecorded interview of President Emmanuel Macron that aired on public television channel France 2 on Sunday night drew much criticism on social media for its soft questions and its obedient tone. On Twitter, a Paris correspondent for the Reuters agency called it “deferential journalism at its worst,” echoing a widespread feeling here that the mainstream media have been too complacent toward Mr. Macron, a young and media-savvy president whom critics call the “president of the rich” and who has openly argued that a powerful presidency is needed to revive French greatness.

“A day after the interview of the French head of state by the French state television, TV Macron has no lesson to give to TV Putin,” a prominent media critic, Daniel Schneidermann, wrote in a reference to the France 2 interview.