France investigates Russian involvement in anti-Semitic graffiti campaign

France is investigating possible Russian involvement in an alleged anti-Semitic campaign that has seen Stars of David daubed on buildings throughout Paris.

Security services reportedly believe the graffiti may have been part of a Russian campaign to “destabilise” France and foment anti-Semitism in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel.

Hundreds of Stars of David, the symbol of the Jewish religion and the State of Israel, were smeared on walls in and around the French capital late last month.

In all, around 250 such symbols were stencilled in blue paint on walls and buildings in Paris’ northeastern 10th arrondissement, in the western 14th arrondissement, in Nanterre, to the west of the capital and in Seine-Saint-Denis, to the north-east.

Prosecutors initially said the motives were unclear but Elisabeth Borne, the French prime minister, condemned what she called “despicable acts” “in the strongest possible terms” and said that the Government would “let nothing pass”.

Shortly afterwards, two Moldovan nationals were arrested over “property damage” connected to “origin, race, ethnicity or religion,” after a local resident saw them “daubing a blue star” on a wall, which was erased the same day, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

The unnamed 33-year-old man and 29-year-old woman then told police that they had been paid by “an individual in Russia” to carry out the act in Paris, according to reports.

Charges were dropped as the pair were in the country without legal permission and they were taken to an administrative detention centre.

However, while awaiting expulsion, police hauled them back in for questioning.

They now believe that the stars were daubed by one “team” around the capital and are “considering the possibility of a destabilisation attempt coming from Moscow”, according to a source close to the investigation cited by France Info on Tuesday.

The state radio news channel said that investigators had since identified another couple spotted on video surveillance cameras painting Stars of David. However, the “suspects quickly left France” afterwards.

“It was like a commando operation,” France Info quoted a police officer as saying.

French intelligence agencies have now been tasked with looking into the incidents, it added.

On Sunday, Laurent Nuñez, Paris’s police chief, said that the graffiti appeared to be “an atypical case compared to other anti-Semitic acts”.

It was carried out by “a team of perpetrators who seem pretty well coordinated” and who “wanted the stars to be seen”.

Over the last few weeks, anti-Semitic crimes have escalated in scale and seriousness in France, which is home to both the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in Europe, making it a particularly fragile flashpoint for hostility.

According to Olivier Klein, the French government’s anti-racism delegate, more acts of antisemitism have been reported in the country since the Hamas attack on Oct 7 and Israel’s subsequent siege of Gaza, than in the entirety of the year to date beforehand.

Nearly 900 such incidents have been recorded in the past month, and 442 arrests made.

Hundreds of anti-Semitic acts

Mr Nuñez said there had been 257 acts of anti-Semitism in Paris and 90 arrests made in the capital since Oct 7.

In a viral video recorded on the Paris metro last week, a group of young people can be heard chanting, “f— the Jews”, “love live Palestine” and “we are Nazis and we are proud”.

Swastikas have appeared on the walls of buildings in Strasbourg and Paris and antisemitic messages like “Dirty Jews” or “Death to Jews” have been daubed on the façades of public schools.

Russia is frequently accused of seeking to sow division and fear within democracies as part of a hybrid war on the West.

Last month, Russian trolls were even accused of seeking to amplify panic over a bed bug invasion in the French capital following reports of sightings of the blood-sucking parasites in cinemas and trains.