Didier Deschamps made nine changes after his side's draw with Ukraine on Thursday, with only Hugo Lloris and Antoine Griezmann staying in the line-up.
With six minutes gone, Hugo Lloris dallied on the ball almost too long after receiving a backpass from Clement Lenglet, but the French captain managed to hook it away to safety just in the nick of time.
Les Bleus opened the scoring in the 19th minute. Anthony Martial fed in Ousmane Dembele, who took a good first touch before firing the ball low across Aleksandr Mokin and into the far corner.
Deschamps' side were lacking precision and didn't create a notable chance for the almost the rest of the half until they doubled their lead in the 44th minute. Sergey Maliy produced a sensational goalline clearance to prevent a near certain goal on the line.
However, the Kazakhstan defender went from hero to villain in a matter of seconds when from the resulting corner he inexplicably headed the ball into his own net.
France were pressing hard for a second and Martial sent a curling free-kick towards the far post, but Mokin watched it like a hawk and fisted it away from goal.
Soon after, France's best player on the night Martial was forced off with injury and replaced by Kylian Mbappe, while Griezmann was replaced by Wisaam Ben Yedder.
Mbappe almost made an instant impact as he played the one-two with Dembele and surged into the box before going for the near post but Mokin managed to get a fingertip to it and divert it behind for a corner.
In the 75th minute, Mbappe's standing leg was taken away by Nuraly Alip inside the penalty area with the referee pointing to the spot. He dusted himself off and stepped up to take the spot-kick but but Mokin guessed the right way to his left and made the save at full stretch.
Mokin was producing a man-of-the-match performance and this time saved the ball between his legs from Adrien Rabiot's grass-cutter. Soon after, Dembele was left baffled as to how he had not scored with a header from close range but the brilliant Mokin thwarted Les Bleus once again.
But in the end it was a rather routine victory for the world champions, who could have won by a lot more were it not for Mokin's heroics.