French authorities have foiled several plots to disrupt the 2024 Olympics, including arresting a Russian man in one of them, officials said Wednesday, just days before the opening ceremony of the Summer Games in Paris.
France has been on high alert over the past few weeks as preparations to host the Olympics hit the final stretch. The Games officially kick off with a lavish and high-security opening ceremony on the River Seine on Friday.
Paris prosecutors said Wednesday that they had arrested a 40-year-old Russian man Tuesday at his Paris apartment on suspicion of planning to “destabilize the Olympic Games.”
He was charged with “conducting intelligence work on behest of a foreign power” with an aim to “provoke hostilities in France,” crimes punishable with 30-year sentence in France, according to a statement from the Paris prosecutor’s office.
During an official search of the suspect’s home in Paris, police agents found items that “raised fears of his intention to organize events likely to lead to 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 has asked French officials for an explanation after seeing reports about it. It did not comment further.
The Games' organizers are facing major security challenges, including cyberattack concerns, amid high international tensions because of the Russia's war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
There are also elaborate disinformation campaigns orchestrated out of Russia, targeting the Olympics and France's recent elections, according to French officials and cybersecurity experts in Europe and the United States.
“We have a list of threats on which we are particularly focused, including the cyberthreat," Sonia Fibleuil, a National Police spokesperson, told The Associated Press.
Such threats “can consist of fake news and disinformation or online campaigns to amplify a piece of news with bots and mass circulate it," Fibleuil said.
In an example this week, French intelligence found that a video on social media supposedly showing a Hamas threat against the Olympics was fake, generated by AI and appeared to have links to Russia, according to a French security official. The official was not authorized to be publicly named discussing intelligence matters.
A Hamas official on Telegram also denied the militant group was behind the video.
Earlier Wednesday in a separate plot, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said in an interview with French broadcaster BFMTV that a young man was arrested in Gironde, a region in southwest France, on suspicion of “planning a violent action against the Olympic Games.”
Police arrested the 18-year-old man Tuesday on accusations that he was planning to target the “organization of the Games,” Darmanin said.
He did not give details on the suspect's potential targets or whether they were in Paris or in other French cities hosting Olympic events that run through Aug. 11.
“We are still working on this case ... (we) avoid giving details ... but we think there is a link," Darmanin said. “It's been established that this person wanted to attack the Olympic Games."
Paris has deployed 35,000 police officers each day for the Olympics, with a peak of 45,000 for the opening ceremony. In addition, 10,000 soldiers are taking part in security operations in the Paris region.
A 10,000-strong military force is patrolling streets and sites in the Paris region and carrying out other security missions.
France also is getting help from more than 40 countries that together have sent at least 1,900 police reinforcements.
Surk reported from Nice, France.
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