Russia assured Tuesday that it would “not interfere” in France, in reaction to suspicions targeting it after the discovery of coffins near the Eiffel Tower. “Russia has not and does not interfere in France’s internal affairs – our country has more important priorities,” the Russian embassy in Paris said in a statement. “The Russian embassy in France expresses its strong protest against a new Russophobic campaign launched in the French media,” she added.
She spoke of a dangerous “hysteria” for Russian citizens in France and expressed solidarity with “French citizens who have been the subject of a witch hunt simply because they are in favor of preserving the ties of friendship long-standing relationship between our countries. The embassy called on the French authorities to “put an end” to this “anti-Russian information campaign”.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov, for his part, denied any disinformation campaign targeting the Olympic Games planned for this summer in Paris, describing as “pure slander” a report from a Microsoft observatory accusing Russia of having intensified these efforts. Peskov assured journalists that these accusations “have nothing to do with reality.”
Moscow is suspected of several acts of destabilization in France in recent months, including the recent placing at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in Paris of coffins bearing the inscription “French soldiers of Ukraine”. Three men suspected of being involved in this affair, a Bulgarian, a man born in Germany and a man born in Ukraine, were presented to a French judge on Monday.
The Threat Analysis Center (MTAC), managed by Microsoft, has implicated two Russian-influenced groups, Storm-1679 and Storm-1099, accused of “sowing fear to dissuade spectators from attending the Games” Olympics. MTAC expects these activities to “intensify” as the opening ceremony approaches.
