The General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) calls on the police to report all “weak signals” of interference operations carried out by the Russian intelligence services in the country, after several actions of this type in on a European scale, according to a note consulted by AFP this Friday February 23.
The Russian intelligence services have put in place “alternative operating methods mobilizing networks of ‘proxies’ (Editor’s note, intermediaries) with the aim of carrying out interference activities”, details this note dated February 14. These operations result in “subversive actions”, carried out by these “proxies” and generally falling under “common law offences”, continues the note which cites as an example “degradation of public property (graffiti, tags), placarding of posters, stickers, distribution of flyers”.
The messages broadcast during these operations “aim overall to amplify internal dissensions and fractures in French society”, by exploiting all types of subjects, from “pension reform” to “taking a position in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ” or to the “denigration of the 2024 Olympics”, continues the DGSI. Even “openly supporting the interests of Russia” by “denouncing the foreign policy of France, the United States or NATO”. “It is not excluded” that “actions of a violent nature” could “also be sponsored”, adds the DGSI, referring to “threats or physical attacks, in particular against Ukrainian nationals or Russian dissidents”.
“Raising awareness among security services”
This note, signed by the new director of Internal Security Céline Berthon, is addressed to the directors of the national police (DGPN) and the national gendarmerie (DGGN), as well as to the Paris police prefect. In the “current geopolitical context, and as France prepares to host the Olympic Games”, the DGSI asks them to “raise awareness among the public security services likely to be required to deal with this type of case”. She also asks to “systematically” report actions of this nature, citing several “weak signals” which can alert.
These acts are “generally committed by members of the Russian-speaking communities of Eastern Europe”, details the DGSI, specifying that these people can either stay “temporarily” in France, or be “settled there for a long time, legally or illegally “. At the end of October, in the midst of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Hamas, dozens of blue Stars of David stencilled were discovered on the facades of buildings in Paris and the suburbs. A Moldovan couple was arrested and the alleged sponsor, a pro-Russian Moldovan businessman, identified. France condemned “Russian digital interference” in this affair.