She is the one who makes the link between Griveaux and Pavlenski. Alexandra de Taddeo was indicted on Tuesday 18 February, shortly before her partner Piotr Pavlenski. The young woman confirmed today that she was the recipient of the intimate videos of Benjamin Griveaux that she had kept on her phone, without intending to broadcast them. "She kept them to keep them," said her lawyer Noémie Saidi-Cottier, who said that she was placed under judicial supervision with a ban on contacting her partner.
Her lawyer says she is "extremely tired" and "a bit exhausted". For the past five days, she has been at the heart of all curiosities, an attention that has led her to erase her "digital life". Her Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram accounts have been blocked from the public, leaving only a few clues to trace the journey of the one who, until now, has never had anything to do with justice.
Passionate about Russia
Originally from Metz, Alexandra de Taddeo is a bright, multilingual young woman, "far from being an anarchist", according to her father, who spoke on February 17 on franceinfo. This sports educator paints a portrait of a serious student who "has been living in Paris in an apartment for ten years", and "has not broken up with the family" .
The student has multiplied the diplomas: after 4 years in a communication school, she cumulated a master 2 in public international law at Paris II-Assas and another in governance and international action at Sciences-Po Toulouse. She also went through the prestigious University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
Alexandra has also been interested in Russian culture for years - whose language she speaks perfectly. She devoted a dissertation to "The foreign policy of the Russian Federation in the Arctic", for which she left in Articque in March 2019. A few months before, she had completed an internship at the Alliance of Lawyers for Rights of Man, then another at Unesco. She has also presented radio programs on Russian art on Protestant Frequency.
Interest in public affairs
Alexandra de Taddeo also seems to be interested in politics. Since October 2018, she has been a member of the Paris Youth Council, a body of participative and non-partisan democracy. Her name appears on the Veil 2018-2019 promotion trombinoscope as well as on the Council's lists. As required by the procedure, she sent her candidacy and was drawn to sit among 100 Parisians aged 15 to 30, consulted by the Paris City Hall on certain "youth" files.
At the University of Paris II-Assas, she participated in the creation of a webradio and a political program on the municipal campaign in 2018. In this context, she asked Gaspard Gantzer in November 2018, according to Le Monde, at the time where he launched his movement "Parisiennes, Parisiens". She offers him an interview which will ultimately not take place. Gantzer then ignores that she had had discussions a few months earlier with her rival, Benjamin Griveaux.
According to the first elements of the investigation, Alexandra de Taddeo contacted him via Facebook and Instagram in the spring of 2018. The conversation, initially political, would have turned into intimate correspondence. According to Le Parisien, the exchanges would have stopped a few months later after "at least one physical meeting".
Pavlenski: a decisive encounter
At the time, Alexandra was not yet in a relationship with the Russian activist. She meets him after having chronicled the latter's trial, tried in January 2019 for setting fire to the facade of a branch of the Banque de France, in Paris, in October 2017. She draws from it a publication "The Art of Being fair "and a decisive encounter. Questioned by Le Parisien, the young woman's brother believes that she falls "very in love".
She leaves her apartment in the very chic 16th arrondissement of Paris to settle with Piotr Pavlenski in a squatt from the 19th. It begins to spawn with the far left. Together, they hang out with Juan Branco, the lawyer of the yellow anti-power vests who invites them to a New Year's party. And she displays new political positions. On the site where the intimate videos of Benjamin Griveaux, Taddeo and Pavlenski were published publish an interview with a pornographic actress entitled: "Puritanism in politics is the sign of an ideology of frustrated politicians".
Far from the political interviews planned for the web radio of the University of Assas. The parents of the young woman denounce the influence of Pavlensky. Alexandra "is not a political activist, supports her mother in Le Parisien. One wonders how she can find herself in this story when it is not at all her style. I think she could have been manipulated by Piotr Pavlenski ... "The investigation will decide.
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