France turned down numerous Olympics accreditation requests from Russians and Belarusians due to threat of espionage

French security services have turned down more than 4,000 requests for accreditation for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, specifically to Russians and Belarusians, due to the threat of espionage and cyber-attacks.

Source: Gérald Darmanin, Minister of Internal Affairs of France, in an interview for Journal du Dimanche, as reported by Politico and European Pravda

Details: Thousands of requests necessary for a wide circle of persons, mainly athletes, volunteers and hired personnel, were turned down, including those of Russian and Belarusian citizens suspected of espionage.

Among the 4,340 turned down requests, less than a hundred were connected with possible attempts of foreign intervention, Darmanin said, mentioning Russia and Belarus among the possible sponsors.

"In addition to intelligence and traditional espionage, there’s the possibility of gaining access to computer network gateways to carry out a cyber attack," he stated.

"For example, we have turned away large numbers of ‘journalists’ claiming to be covering the Games," Darmanin added.

At the same time Darmanin stressed the absence of the threat of terrorism at the 2024 Olympics in Paris which will start on 26 July.

Earlier Lambis Konstantinidis, Executive Director of Planning and Coordination at Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Organising Committee, stated that the recent attempt on Donald Trump’s life at the pre-election meeting in Pennsylvania did not change the security plans of the Olympics.

At the beginning of July the French police held several arrests in connection with terrorist threats towards upcoming Olympics in Paris.

There were warnings about potential terrorist threats, especially shortly before the Paris Olympics in July and during the Euro Cup in Germany.

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