Olympic officials fear excluded Russia plans to cause Paris mayhem
By Rob Harris
Paris: Olympics officials fear the Paris Games will be further targeted by misinformation and cyberattacks over the next three weeks following recent incidents which have been widely blamed on Russia.
Preparations for the event, which begin next week, stepped up a gear on Saturday as security teams scoured the banks of the River Seine ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony and top International Olympic Committee officials met in the French capital.
A police officer patrols the streets of Paris on Saturday.Credit: AP
Security teams have swamped the city with more than 18,000 military officers and 35,000 police deployed while sniffer dogs were used on Saturday to check the six-kilometre route along the river for the ceremony. Up to 7000 athletes will sail on nearly a hundred barges and river boats in front of 300,000 spectators.
Early on Saturday, a rehearsal for the ceremony was held on the river but security barriers and police screened it from the eyes of residents and media. Agencies are also on red-alert as the Israel-Hamas war has caused threats against Jews and Israelis to skyrocket in Europe.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said it was clear that a targeted campaign against the Paris Olympics was already under way following a handful of incidents including a feature-length fake documentary that emerged in 2023 titled Olympics has Fallen which used AI-generated audio to impersonate Hollywood star Tom Cruise.
Security teams have swamped the city with more than 18,000 military officers and 35,000 police deployed.Credit: AP
The film, falsely purporting to be a Netflix documentary, was apparently designed to erode global support for the Olympics.
IOC President Thomas Bach was targeted in March by hoax phone calls from a group in Russia pretending to be representing the African Union Commission.
“Clearly there is a campaign of some sort going on,” Adams told a press conference. “It’s not the first or last time that the IOC will be targeted with misinformation. It’s getting more and more sophisticated.
“I’m afraid it’s one of those things that we have to live with…it’s part of the divided world we live in.”
A report published in June from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Centre said that it had observed a network of Russia-affiliated actors pursuing a range of malign influence campaigns against France, French President Emmanuel Macron, the IOC, and the Paris Games.
In March a fake infographic was circulated on a Telegram account in Russian, claiming to link Macron’s condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to an apparent fall-off in bookings for the Olympics.
Russia will be the big absentee from Paris, with just 15 Russians and 16 Belarusians accredited as most sports have turned their backs on Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine.
Those allowed to compete at the Games have had to meet strict criteria on neutrality, but Global Rights Compliance, a Hague-based human rights foundation, said two-thirds of the Russians selected had expressed support for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine or have links to the military.
The IOC hopes that the forthcoming Olympics, which take place amid geopolitical turmoil, will reduce tension between nations through the traditional truce which has been supported by the United Nations.
“We’re not naive enough to think that the Olympic Truce is going to make everyone lay down their arms,” Adams said. “We hope, and we pray, that we can create a culture of peace. That’s what the Olympic Games can do.”
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