French police have arrested a Russian suspected of potentially destabilizing the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, French prosecutors announced Wednesday. The man was arrested Tuesday after police searched his home and discovered evidence that raised concerns about “his goal of organizing events that could cause destabilization at the Olympic Games,” prosecutors said in a statement.
The 40-year-old was being held in Reguyd on Wednesday and faces up to 30 years of criminal conviction if convicted of the charges. Authorities did not elaborate on the alleged plot but said it was not terrorism-related, according to French news outlet AFP.
The Russia embassy in Paris told Reuters it “proactively asked them for clarification. We will look for a reaction. “
The Olympic Games officially begin on Friday in Paris and the opening rite will take place along the Seine. France organized its largest peacetime security operation to safeguard the competition, which is positioned in the context of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine and the war between Israel and Hamas.
More than a million people were the subject of a government investigation ahead of the Games, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told Paris Match magazine on Tuesday.
Another 4,360 people were denied attendance at the Olympics, and Darmanin’s relatives told AFP that another 880 people were denied attendance due to suspicions of foreign interference.
Tension between France and Russia is rising as the games approach. In June, French police arrested a Russian Ukrainian who set off an explosion in a hotel room north of Paris. He was under investigation for possible involvement in a terrorist plot.
That same month, Russia arrested a French researcher, Laurent Vinatier, whom the government accused of collecting money from the Russian military and failing to register as a foreign agent.