Paris: An alleged Russian spy who spent time as a contestant on TV cooking shows has been arrested in France on suspicion of plotting to “destabilise” the country just days before the Olympic Games opening ceremony in Paris.
The 40-year-old man was detained on Tuesday after police raided his house at the request of French intelligence agencies, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. It was reported they had been following him for several months.
French police raided the man’s house.Credit: Thomas Padilla
The man is now being investigated over sharing intelligence with a foreign power in an attempt to “provoke hostilities in France” and has been placed in pre-trial detention. The offence carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
French media quoted sources close to the inquiry as saying the man had been involved in a “large-scale” pro-Russian operation, believed to be linked with Moscow’s special forces, which are a part of the security agency FSB.
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Le Monde said a document indicating that he was a member of an elite unit of the security agency that succeeded the KGB was found at his home.
The newspaper suggested that French counterespionage operatives had been following him since at least May when he was banned from boarding a flight from Turkey to France because he was drunk. Having rerouted through Bulgaria, he called an FSB handler and said: “The French are going to have an opening ceremony like there has never been,” according to Le Monde.
The man was reported to have first arrived in France in 2010 where he attended a Parisian cooking school and then worked in a luxury hotel in Courchevel, the Alpine ski resort. He now describes himself as a private chef, posts cooking tutorials on social media and has featured in Russian television cooking shows, the report added.
Russia’s embassy in Paris said it had not received official notification of the detention and had “proactively asked them for clarification”.
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