The FSB officer boasted that he could disrupt the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games before his arrest on July 21.
The official opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games will take place in Paris on Friday. There will be no Russians immersed in doping and waging war against Ukraine at the Olympics, except for some athletes in a neutral status, but this does not mean that the Games are not interesting to the Russian intelligence services. Thus, a Russian was arrested in Paris and charged with “intelligence activities in the interest of a foreign state with the aim of inciting hostility towards France.” If convicted, the man faces up to 30 years in prison.
The cook is a spy
Intelligence services have been monitoring the native of Russia for several days and decided to conduct a search of his apartment in Paris.
As a result, as Le Parisien wrote, the agents discovered “evidence indicating that he was preparing pro-Russian operations to destabilize the situation during the Olympic Games.”
According to AFP, authorities did not provide any details on the alleged plot, except to say that it was not terrorist in nature and that counter-terrorism specialists were not involved in the case.
French Le Monde tells the story of the imprisoned Russian in detail. He calls it K.
Citing intelligence services and unnamed other sources of information, the newspaper reported that K. arrived in France in early 2010.
As follows from his resume, which Le Monde has, in Russia he was a partner in an investment fund in Moscow, and then worked in other financial companies.
In France, K. decided to change his profession, writes the publication, and entered a culinary school in Paris. In November 2011, K moved to Courchevel, a ski resort popular with the Russian elite, to do an internship at a Michelin-starred restaurant and stayed there until March 2012.
Currently, the French newspaper writes, K. calls himself a private chef, he is a participant in several Russian reality shows and culinary programs on television, and also publishes lessons on cooking on social networks, where he has several thousand subscribers.
As follows from the publication of Le Mond, the Russian got the attention of the intelligence services when he returned from Turkey to France, where he lives, in May 2024. In Istanbul they refused to take him on the flight because he was drunk . Then he decided to fly to France from Bulgaria and then from the restaurant called “his boss in Russian intelligence.” According to Le Mond, K. said that in Paris “the French will organize such an opening ceremony for the Olympic Games as they have never seen before.” “The FSB officer boasted that he could disrupt the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games before his arrest on July 21,” this is how the French newspaper interpreted K’s words.
Preparation for the Olympics
On the eve of the Olympics, the security services checked the files of more than a million people, including athletes, coaches, journalists, volunteers, security guards and even local residents who live near the competition venues, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in an interview. with the Paris Match on Tuesday.
Of these, 4,360 people were not allowed to attend the Games. According to AFP sources close to the minister, 880 people were turned away due to suspicions of foreign interference attempts.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.