Illegal spraying
Paris blames Moscow for Star of David graffiti
November 9, 2023, 8:59 p.m
At the end of October, Star of David graffiti appears on the walls of houses in Paris. Politicians and Jewish communities see this as an anti-Semitic sign. According to the French Foreign Ministry, the traces lead to Russia.
France accuses Russia of being behind the mass spraying of Stars of David on Paris buildings around two weeks ago. France strongly condemns the involvement of the Russian propaganda network Recent Reliable News (RRN/Doppelgänger) in the distribution of photos of the Star of David tags on social networks, the Foreign Ministry said in Paris. As far as the acts themselves are concerned, the investigation would have to show whether a foreign client was behind it.
According to the Paris public prosecutor’s office, a couple from Moldova who were arrested after the spraying operation in Paris and surrounding communities stated that they had sprayed the Stars of David on the walls on behalf of a third person in exchange for money. Investigators found an exchange in Russian on her phone. The two detainees are in detention pending deportation. According to the public prosecutor’s office, another couple who were also involved in the spraying operation left France the next day. According to images from a surveillance camera, a man who has not yet been identified is said to have taken photos during the spraying operation.
“This new Russian digital interference operation against France testifies to the persistence of an opportunistic and irresponsible strategy aimed at exploiting international crises to cause confusion and create tension in the public debate in France and Europe,” the Paris Foreign Ministry said . The service responsible for monitoring and protecting against foreign digital interference discovered the involvement of a network of 1,095 bots on the X platform (formerly Twitter), with 2,589 posts being published automatically using software.
Russia denies allegations
The public prosecutor believes it is conceivable that the spraying with stencils was carried out on the express orders of a person abroad. According to the analysis of telephone data, both couples may have been in contact with the same person, the authority said. In view of the current geopolitical tensions, the anti-Semitic intention of those responsible must be further investigated.
According to information from the broadcaster Europe 1, which was also confirmed by the newspaper “Le Monde”, the Moldovan pro-Russian businessman Anatoli P. is said to have been the client of the spraying operation. He was identified using the telephone data of the two arrested men and located in Russia.
The Russian government denied any connection to the spray-painted Stars of David. “It is an attempt by the French authorities to pretend that the growing anti-Semitism does not come from their own country,” said Foreign Office spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. The investigators’ statements that there was a Russian-speaking client were “absolute nonsense and simply unworthy,” she emphasized.