PARIS– French authorities thwarted several plans to disrupt the 2024 Olympicsincluding the arrest of a Russian in one of them, authorities said Wednesday, just days before the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Paris.
France is on high alert in recent weeks, as preparations to host the Olympics reached the final stretch. The Games officially begin in a luxurious and high-security environment opening ceremony on the River Seine on Friday.
Paris prosecutors said Wednesday they arrested a 40-year-old Russian man Tuesday at his Paris apartment on suspicion of plotting to “destabilize the Olympic Games.”
He was accused of “carrying out intelligence work at the behest of a foreign power” with the aim of “provoking hostilities in France”, crimes punishable by 30 years in France, according to a statement from the Paris prosecutor’s office.
During an official search of the suspect’s home in Paris, police officers found items that “raised fears about his intention to organize events that could lead to the destabilization of the Olympic Games,” prosecutors said.
The Russian Embassy in Paris said it had not received any notification from French authorities about the arrest and asked French authorities for explanations after seeing reports on the matter. He made no further comments.
Games organizers face major security challenges, including concerns about cyber attacksamid high international tensions due to the Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
There are also elaborate disinformation campaigns orchestrated by Russiatargeting the Olympics and recent elections in France, according to French officials and cybersecurity experts in Europe and the United States.
“We have a list of threats that we are particularly focused on, including the cyber threat,” National Police spokeswoman Sonia Fibleuil told the Associated Press.
Such threats “may consist of fake news and disinformation or online campaigns to amplify a news story with bots and spread it en masse,” Fibleuil said.
In one example this week, French intelligence discovered that a social media video purporting to show a Hamas threat against the Olympics was fake, AI-generated and appeared to have links to Russia, according to a French security official. The official was not authorized to be named publicly when discussing intelligence matters.
A Hamas official on Telegram also denied that the militant group was behind the video.
On Wednesday, in a separate story, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said in an interview with French broadcaster BFMTV that a young man was arrested in Gironde, a region in southwestern France, on suspicion of “planning violent action against the Games Olympics.”
Police arrested the 18-year-old man on Tuesday on charges that he planned to attack the “organization of the Games,” Darmanin said.
He did not give details about the suspect’s possible targets or whether they were in Paris or other French cities hosting Olympic events running until Aug. 11.
“We’re still working on this case… (we) avoid giving details… but we think there is a connection,” Darmanin said. “It was established that this person wanted to attack the Olympic Games.”
Paris deployed 35,000 cops every day for the Olympics, with a peak of 45,000 for the opening ceremony. In addition, 10,000 soldiers participate in security operations in the Paris region.
A military force of 10,000 men is patrolling streets and locations in the Paris region and carrying out other security missions.
France too is receiving help from more than 40 countries that, together, sent at least 1,900 police reinforcements.
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Surk reported from Nice, France.
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