French police arrest Russian man suspected of plotting Paris Olympics "destabilization"
French police arrested a Russian man on suspicion of potentially destabilizing the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, French prosecutors said Wednesday. The man was detained Tuesday after police raided his home and found evidence that raised "fears of his intention to organize events likely to cause destabilization during the Olympic Games," prosecutors said in a statement.
The 40-year-old man was being held Wednesday in pre-trial detention and could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the charges. Authorities did not give any more details about the alleged plot, but said they did not believe it was terrorism related, according to the French news agency AFP.
The Russian embassy in Paris told the Reuters news agency it had "proactively asked them for clarification. We will seek a reaction."
The Olympics formally begin in Paris on Friday, with the opening ceremony set to take place along the Seine river. France has organized its largest ever peacetime security operation to safeguard the competition, which takes place against the backdrop of Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the war between Israel and Hamas.
Over a million people have been investigated by authorities leading up to the games, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told Paris Match magazine on Tuesday.
4,360 people have been denied access to the Olympics, and people close to Darmanin told the AFP that 880 were barred over suspicions of foreign interference.
Tension between France and Russia has grown ahead of the games. In June, French police arrested a Ukrainian-Russian man who caused an explosion in a hotel room north of Paris. He was being investigated as possibly participating in a terrorist plot.
That same month, Russia arrested a French researcher, Laurent Vinatier, whom authorities accused of gathering information on the Russian military and failing to register as a foreign agent.