Russian chef arrested in Paris over alleged ‘large scale’ Olympic Games plot

A Russian chef who has lived in France for 14 years has been arrested on suspicion of plotting with a foreign power to stage “large scale” acts of “destabilisation” during the Olympic Games in Paris.

The 40-year-old man was arrested during a raid of his apartment in central Paris on Sunday where a document linked to an elite Russian special forces unit operating under the command of the FSB, an heir to the KGB, was reportedly found.

A judicial investigation has been opened into allegations of sharing “intelligence with a foreign power with a view to provoking hostilities in France,” a crime punishable by 30 years of imprisonment. The alleged plot is not believed to have been terror related.

The Olympic rings in Paris. Russian and Belarusian Olympic athletes accused of supporting war in Ukraine Read more The man, who has not been named, was indicted on this charge on the same day and placed in pretrial detention.

An ambitious opening ceremony of Paris 2024 will be staged on the banks of the Seine on Friday evening and there has long been concern that Russia could seek to meddle in events.

Gerald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said that “other Russian individuals” had been arrested amid evidence at attempts to spread disinformation ahead of the Games.

“We think very strongly that he was going to organise operations of destabilisation, interference, spying,” Darmanin told BFM television. “He’s now in the justice system which will be able to confirm the suspicions of the police.”