Although Russia is always accused of being authoritarian and crushing opponents, debate in media is much freer. In the “Poedinok” (“The Duel”) talkshow different opinions are debated and even though the anchor is known to be pro-Putin, he still invites people with different views to the show and is extremely polite to them. For example, Ukrainian fanatics were invited to the show, saying Russians are barbarians.
In France everything is controlled. People who are against the European Union are not invited to TV shows and that is a very bad sign for the regime. We can hardly speak of pluralism in France.