On the night of October 27, a 33-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman were caught red-handed in the tenth arrondissement of Paris when they sprayed blue Stars of David on house facades. Both are Moldovan citizens and lack valid visas.
They were detained pending deportation.
The investigation grew a few days later, when around 200 freshly painted Stars of David were discovered on house facades around the Paris region. For many French people, it came as a shock and brought associations with World War II, when thousands of French Jews were arrested and deported to Nazi extermination camps.
Right-wing extremists have long incited against Jews in the country, and in recent years several Islamist acts of terror have been directed against Jewish institutions.
French authorities have warned that the conflict in Israel contributed to a sharp increase in the number of anti-Semitic hate crimes. The seriousness is underlined by an attack in Lyon last Saturday, when a woman was seriously stabbed in her home. The attacker is said to have carved a swastika on the woman’s door.
Just in the case of The stars of David in Paris, however, French police believe that the motive image is different. The Moldovan couple who were arrested say in questioning that they were offered payment by a person in Russia.
Analyzes of their phones prove that the couple had contact with a pro-Russian Moldovan activist in Russia, and according to Europe 1 he should have offered them around 50 euros per person. An analysis by Le Monde shows that images of the couple’s graffiti spread quickly via a large pro-Russian site and various pro-Russian accounts on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).
Another Moldovan couple has reportedly been identified using surveillance cameras. They left the country shortly after spraying Stars of David in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. The police write in a communiqué that that couple also had contact with the Moldovan activist in Russia.
The investigators suspect that it is a Russian influence operation, intended to fuel the contradictions in France and contribute to political division, according to FranceInfo, Le Monde and Europe 1.
The Russian government has not commented on the data.