The bedbug psychosis which spread in France last fall was
“artificially amplified”
by Russia, French Minister for Europe Jean-Noël Barrot said on Friday.
Asked on the TF1 channel about attempts at destabilization in France allegedly led by Russia, the minister returned to this affair which had gone around the world.
“The bedbug controversy (...) has been artificially amplified on
social networks
by accounts which have been established to be of Russian inspiration or origin, with even a false link created between the arrival of Ukrainian refugees and the spread of bedbugs
,” he declared.
This was
“very largely amplified by accounts linked to the Kremlin
,” he added.
“Russian digital interference”
Amateur photos and videos reporting the presence of these insects, which feed on human blood and are supposed to have disappeared from daily life since the 1950s, had flooded social networks from mid-September.
The great return of pests had taken on the dimensions of a state affair, a few months before the Paris Olympic Games, a sporting event with high tourism stakes.
Seven schools and classes had been closed but all the cases reported, some in a cinema seat, some on a train seat, were far from all being proven.
According to Jean-Noël Barrot, Russia's cyberattack and disinformation operations have
“started to accelerate two years ago, since the start of the war in Ukraine”
.
“We know this because the President of the Republic created in 2021 a service called Viginum whose mission is to detect these maneuvers which aim to destabilize public opinion in France and weaken public support for Ukraine »
, he recalled.
France also condemned
“Russian digital interference”
in November , this time denouncing the role of a Russian network in
the “artificial amplification and first-time dissemination on social networks of photos of the
Stars of David tags”.
reproduced on buildings in the Paris region.
This interference took place in the middle of the conflict between the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Israel.