The recent arrest of a Russian man for alleged “destabilizing” activities against the Paris Games It illustrates last-minute concerns among organizers that Moscow might try to disrupt the event, which kicks off Friday.
The man, born in 1984, was arrested at his home in Paris this week and is suspected of “collaborating with a foreign power to stir up hostilities in France.”the prosecutor’s office said Tuesday.
The newspaper Le Monde reported that the police found documents “of diplomatic interest” in his apartmentwho is suspected of working with the Russian security service, the FSB, after having appeared on reality TV shows and having worked for a time as a chef at a French ski resort.
“We strongly believe that he was going to organise destabilization operations, interference, espionage,” French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told BFMTV on Wednesday, citing a variety of clues: “It could be cyberattacks in which complicity is needed, it could be manipulation of information…”
The suspect “is in the hands of the courts, which will be able to confirm the police’s suspicions,” the minister said, adding that the suspect’s presence on French soil is recent.
Darmanin recalled that “other Russian individuals” had recently been arrested in the capital, and that the French authorities had been observing a disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting the Paris Olympic Games, which begin this Friday.
The minister recalled a recent video on social media of a supposed representative of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, threatening France with attacks for hosting Israeli athletes, but which turned out to be fake.
“We think that this is a fake video spread by accounts that, from what we see, are pro-Kremlin, pro-Russian,” said the minister, denouncing a “multiplicity” of maneuvers likely to “cause damage to our country and arouse concern.”
Almost all Russian athletes were banned from the Paris Games as a diplomatic retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and only about 15 will compete under a neutral flag.
At the weekend, Darmanin revealed that the French authorities had rejected a “large number” of applications from Russian citizens to be accredited as journalists and to follow the Games, because of suspicions that they might actually be spies. Applications from Russian citizens to act as volunteers were also denied.
Russia has denied involvement in any destabilization operations against the Paris Games, saying the denial of accreditation to Russian reporters “violates press freedom.”
In April, the French president Emmanuel Macron He said he had “no doubt” that Russia was targeting the organisation of the Olympic Games, “including the information sphere”.
Source: Ambito
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