The City of Lights is in Moscow’s crosshairs. Oft a fantasized nuclear target of Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, Paris is being actively targeted by the Kremlin ahead of tomorrow’s official opening of the XXXIII Olympiad — and there are increasing signs it could turn kinetic.
Banned by the International Olympic Committee from participating as a nation after its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has instead looked to other asymmetrical means of bringing home the gold. Outwardly, Vladimir Putin has played the aggrieved party — but strategically, he’s inwardly viewing Paris as an opening to expand his hybrid war against the West.
Putin’s war against the Olympics began in typical Russian fashion. In June, Microsoft reported that the Kremlin “is ramping up malign disinformation campaigns against France, French President Emmanuel Macron, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.”
Moscow is cleverly using Cold War disinformation tactics against the Olympics by delivering them in artificial intelligence packaging. Two notable Russian players, according to Microsoft, are Storm-1679 and Storm-1099.
Beginning in 2023, they began targeting the Paris Olympics. One notable example was publishing a fake Netflix documentary website titled “Olympics Has Fallen,” an ingenious play off the popular 2013 “Olympus Has Fallen” Hollywood movie.
In Storm-1679’s version, Tom Cruise’s voice was deep-faked to narrate the documentary. And according to Microsoft, Storm-1679 “spoofed Netflix’s iconic intro scene and corporate branding and promoted bogus five-star reviews from reputable media outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the BBC.”
The intent of the fake video and others like it is to inculcate fear in the West that the Paris Olympics will turn violent — and on a scale greater than the kidnapping and killing of Israeli Olympians by Palestinian Black September terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Notably, the former Soviet Union was funding, supplying and training Black September in part, alongside Fatah, prior to the attack in Germany.
Many of the Storm-1679-linked social media accounts are promising a repeat against Israelis in Paris. Significantly, Microsoft suspects but cannot confirm that other malign actors are involved. It is highly likely, in our view, that those other actors being amplified by Russian bots and trolls, including Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.
Russia’s disinformation campaigns are highly sophisticated, right down to ubiquitous QR codes to redirect unsuspecting viewers and deep-faking France 24 — a major French news television station.
Microsoft to date has charted Putin’s disinformation campaigns and divided them into two primary phases. Phase I began in 2023, and Phase II in 2024. Both have involved “denigration of [the] IOC,” “allegations of mismanagement,” and expectations of violence” at the Paris Olympics.
Phase III was potentially unveiled yesterday in Paris, and it signaled a far more portentous if not kinetic intent. French officials arrested a 40-year-old Russian chef in the heart of the city, accusing him of having links to the FSB and divulging “intelligence with a foreign power [Russia] with a view to provoking hostilities in France.”
France is taking the combined cyber and growing kinetic threats seriously; 11 million visitors are expected at the games, including 10,500 athletics who will be vying for medals in 329 separate Olympic events spread out in northern and central Paris.
To secure the Olympic venues, France has created an unprecedented security zone. Described by Paris police head Laurent Nunez as an “anti-terrorism perimeter,” Paris beginning on July 18 locked down a major swath of the city. To enter the zone, individuals must pre-register online, and “will be subjected to the background security checks known in France as an ‘administrative investigation.’”
QR code passes are being used to control entry to the zone — and to track movements of people while physically there. Facial recognition devices are also being widely used across Paris to track known criminals, foreign agents and likely anyone holding a Russian passport.
Yet even this hi-tech approach to security is not without risk. As evidenced by the CrowdStrike “bug,” technology works until it does not, and the Kremlin, despite all of its abject military failings on the battlefields of Ukraine, remains really, really good at conducting cyber, espionage and asymmetrical warfare.
Plus, a home-grown security error may be in the making. France has allowed 2,000 Qatari security forces to be deployed to patrol the Olympics in Paris despite Doha’s close ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Paris is on edge. Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who traveled to Paris to support Israeli athletes participating in the Olympics, was prevented from deboarding his plane Wednesday until a security threat was resolved.
The incident is a reminder that, in addition to Russia, France must also remain alert to threats posed by Putin’s Axis of Evil allies. Hamas and Hezbollah in particular could attempt to seize the Olympics as a means of bringing attention to their respective ongoing wars against Israel in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.
Iran, too, cannot be discounted — particularly as Tehran rapidly nears nuclear breakout and appears poised to soon gain the warhead delivery technology it needs from Moscow to fully weaponize its nuclear program. Fostering or aiding in a kinetic or asymmetrical crisis in Paris could serve as much needed distraction to Iran’s nuclear ambitions at Natanz.
For now, however, Putin remains the greatest threat to Paris. Not existentially speaking, but as a defining cultural symbol. Undermining Paris undermines the West — especially since the City of Lights represents culturally everything Putin is striving to destroy in his global war.
Might he escalate those efforts further at the Olympics? Especially as a desperate attempt to gain concessions in Washington and Brussels that which he cannot gain on the battlefields of Ukraine?
Possibly.
Putin has spent a significant amount of time, effort and Russian rubles the last two-plus years attempting to weaponize and wage war against the Paris Olympics, and he is desperate to reap a return one way or the other. Getting it fairly, however, is not his modus operandi.
The Kremlin steals whatever Putin wants — and stealing Olympic gold, after all, has long been a Russian specialty.
Mark Toth writes on national security and foreign policy. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Sweet served 30 years as a military intelligence officer and led the U.S. European Command Intelligence Engagement Division from 2012 to 2014.