Participants walk in front of the cafeteria at the Olympic Village in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, ahead of the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games on July 22, 2024. (Photo: Michel Euler/Pool/AFP)
The Kremlin on Monday condemned France for blocking Russian journalists from covering the Paris Olympics after French authorities said they suspected several Russian journalists of being undercover spies.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in a newspaper interview over the weekend that Paris had rejected “numerous” applications for media accreditation from Russian nationals to cover the Olympics.
He told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper that France suspects some individuals are actually working for Moscow’s intelligence services and are trying to access the Olympics to “gather intelligence” or “access computer networks to carry out cyber attacks.”
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Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said on Monday that five of its correspondents had been denied accreditation.
“We consider this decision unacceptable,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
“This is a violation of press freedom,” he added, calling on human rights groups to take up the issue.
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“The threats of espionage and cyber attacks raised by the French authorities are completely absurd and baseless allegations,” Russian human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said.
Russia has been banned from taking part in the Olympics, which begin on Friday, because of its military attack on Ukraine.
Several Russian athletes have been allowed to compete under neutral flags after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and sports federations determined they have no ties to the military or expressed support for the attacks.
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