00:00 Here in France, investigators say they believe that Russia was behind a stunt near the Eiffel Tower during the weekend.
00:05 Police have arrested three people after five coffins were left near to the Eiffel Tower draped in French flags.
00:11 Investigators believe this stunt is connected with a propaganda campaign to affect public opinion.
00:16 This stunt is also likely to be connected to at least two other recent incidents here in Paris.
00:22 Well, for more on this, I'm joined by France 24's Monty Francis from the newsroom. Monty, welcome to the program.
00:27 First of all, what more do we know about this incident at the Eiffel Tower?
00:30 Well, so Tom, this happened at about nine o'clock on Saturday morning.
00:33 Essentially, these five coffins just showed up on the sidewalk in front of the Eiffel Tower.
00:38 They were covered in the French flag and also an inscription written in French that said "French soldiers in Ukraine."
00:45 Inside, there were just harmless sacks of plaster.
00:48 Now, those coffins had been unloaded from a van and police arrested three suspects.
00:54 They arrested the driver immediately there at the scene. He told them he had been paid 40 euros to transport the coffins.
01:01 The two other suspects were later located at a bus station in central Paris,
01:06 and they were apparently planning to board a bus for Berlin.
01:10 They told investigators they had been paid 400 euros to place the coffins there.
01:15 French media is reporting that the driver is from Bulgaria.
01:19 The other two men are from Ukraine and Germany, and investigators say these men have ties to Russia.
01:24 So what would be the motivation here? Why would Russia want to do something like this?
01:28 Remember, Moscow has been quite upset with French President Emmanuel Macron,
01:32 who has failed to rule out sending troops to Ukraine,
01:35 also holding discussions to send French instructors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian soldiers.
01:40 And Russia, as you might expect, has dismissed these accusations as untrue.
01:46 Okay, I mean, Russia thought to be linked to at least two other incidents, as I was saying a moment ago.
01:52 I mean, this is all part of an attempt to manipulate public opinion, it seems.
01:57 That's right. Let me just go through these other two incidents for you.
02:00 Most recently, there was an incident of graffiti at the Holocaust Memorial here in Paris.
02:05 Someone vandalised the memorial with red handprints and red paint on a wall
02:10 that listed the names of people who had helped Jews escape the Nazis in World War II.
02:15 Now, that symbol, that red handprint, for many Jews, refers to something that happened in 2000,
02:21 involving the death of two Israeli reservists.
02:24 And it's recognised by some in the Jewish community as sort of a celebration of the death of Jews.
02:29 So for this graffiti, three suspects were detained and questioned.
02:33 They were all said to be from Bulgaria, also with ties to Russia.
02:38 Now, since that investigation is open, they have disappeared.
02:40 They have apparently fled France, and their whereabouts are unknown.
02:44 Another incident happened back in October, just after the attack by Hamas in Israel,
02:51 when Stars of David began appearing in a neighbourhood here in Paris
02:55 to apparently show where Jewish people lived.
02:57 That, of course, harkens back to World War II.
02:59 A Moldovan couple was arrested for that graffiti.
03:02 And once again, French investigators are saying that these folks were paid by Russian intelligence.
03:09 OK, so for someone watching, you're saying, why would Russia do this?
03:12 Why is it in their interest?
03:13 I mean, the answer seems to be to sort of sow a sense of confusion and chaos in our societies.
03:20 That's right. We've seen this time and time again,
03:21 whether we're talking about Russia interfering in US elections to spread disinformation or elections here in Europe.
03:29 And we're even seeing it in the run up to the Olympic Summer Games here in Paris.
03:33 Russia has been barred from competing in the games under the Russian flag.
03:37 And Moscow is really quite upset about this.
03:41 Russia is believed to be behind a fake one hour documentary that's been circulating on social media,
03:47 stoking fears about a possible terror attack at the games.
03:51 The documentary looks quite authentic.
03:53 It uses the Netflix logo, the narrator's voice is generated by AI.
03:59 It sounds very much like the actor Tom Cruise.
04:03 So the bigger picture here is that these incidents really do, as you say,
04:06 they fit into this modus operandi of Russian propaganda to sow chaos and disinformation in the West and in Western democracies.
04:15 OK, well, thank you very much indeed for that, Monty Francis from the newsroom.
04:18 Thank you very much indeed.
04:19 OK.
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