French police arrested a Russian man in Paris on Tuesday on suspicion of plotting acts of “destabilisation” during the Summer Olympic Games, which are due to open in the French capital on Friday, Agence France Presse reported.
The 40-year-old man, who has not been named, was arrested after a search of his home authorised by the French Interior Ministry was carried out, a source in France’s prosecution service told AFP.
Law enforcement officers uncovered evidence of the man’s plans to “organise events likely to lead to destabilisation during the Olympic Games” during the search, the source said, adding that an investigation was subsequently opened into his suspected passing of “intelligence to a foreign power in order to arouse hostilities in France”, a crime punishable by up to 30 years behind bars.
The source gave no further details of the alleged plot, but stressed that it was not terrorist in nature and that French anti-terrorist prosecutors were not involved in the case.
French law enforcement agencies have carried out background checks on around 1 million people as part of heightened anti-terrorism measures in the lead-up to the Olympics, with around 1,000 individuals barred from attending the games on suspicion of spying for foreign states, the country’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Tuesday.
Just 15 Russians competitors have accepted an invitation to take part in this year’s games as “individual neutral athletes”, with Russia banned from competing by the International Olympic Committee in February 2022 following Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In a move not seen since the Cold War, Russia will also not broadcast this summer’s Games, with a source telling news outlet Sports.ru that it was “impossible to show the Olympics without the [Russian] flag and anthem”.