{"id":28092,"date":"2024-07-24T06:29:13","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T10:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=28092"},"modified":"2024-07-24T06:29:13","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T10:29:13","slug":"russian-arrested-over-alleged-plot-to-destabilise-paris-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2024\/07\/24\/russian-arrested-over-alleged-plot-to-destabilise-paris-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian arrested over alleged plot to ‘destabilise’ Paris Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Russian man has been arrested in France on suspicion of plotting acts of “destabilisation” during the Paris Olympics, prosecutors have said.<\/b><\/p>\n

Local media reports that a 40-year-old man was arrested on Sunday and an investigation opened into the possible passing of “intelligence to a foreign power in order to arouse hostilities in France”.<\/p>\n

The alleged plot is not believed to have been for a terror attack.<\/p>\n

It comes just days before the games get under way, with the opening ceremony set to take place in central Paris on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Prosecutors said a search had been carried out at the man’s Paris apartment at the request of the French interior ministry.<\/p>\n

A source close to the investigation\u00a0told Le Parisien<\/a>\u00a0agents had discovered evidence that suggested the man was preparing “pro-Russian operations” to destabilise France during the games.<\/p>\n

Another source said the alleged plot was a “large-scale project” that could have had “serious” consequences.<\/p>\n

No further details have been given other than that the investigation is being carried out by specialists in counter-espionage, not counter-terrorism.<\/p>\n

The man was indicted on Tuesday evening and placed in pre-trial detention.<\/p>\n

The crimes being investigated are reportedly punishable by a prison sentence of up to 30 years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said this week that authorities had screened over one million people – including athletes, coaches, journalists, volunteers, security guards, and local residents near event locations – ahead of the games.<\/p>\n

Of the 4,360 people denied access, 880 were barred over suspicions of foreign interference, the AFP news agency reports, citing sources close to Mr Darmanin.<\/p>\n

“We are here to ensure that sport is not used for espionage, cyberattacks or to criticise and sometimes even lie about France and the French,” Mr Darmanin said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Recent months have seen a number of incidents that have raised suspicion of an outside attempt to exploit and stoke divisions within France, particularly over the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.<\/p>\n

In June,\u00a0five coffins draped<\/a>\u00a0in a French flag and bearing the inscription \u201cFrench soldiers of Ukraine\u201d were left near the Eiffel Tower.<\/p>\n

Three men – a Bulgarian, a Ukrainian, and a German – were later apprehended and told police they had been paid to deposit the coffins.<\/p>\n

French intelligence officials said they believed Russia was behind the incident.<\/p>\n

The month before, red hands were painted on the main Holocaust memorial in Paris. Police said the perpetrators were believed to have fled abroad.<\/p>\n

And in the weeks after the 7 October Hamas attack and the beginnings of Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza, around\u00a0250 graffiti stencils<\/a>\u00a0of the Stars of David – the main symbol depicted on the Israeli flag – appeared on several walls around Paris.<\/p>\n

A Moldovan couple were later arrested, and French officials said the pair were thought to have been paid by Russian intelligence.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Russian man has been arrested in France on suspicion of plotting acts of “destabilisation” during the Paris Olympics, prosecutors have said. Local media reports that a 40-year-old man was arrested on Sunday and an […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,6],"tags":[10525,2913,10524,2740,442,2293],"class_list":{"0":"post-28092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-world","10":"tag-counter-espionage","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-french-interior-ministry","13":"tag-paris","14":"tag-russia","15":"tag-spying","16":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28094,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28092\/revisions\/28094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}