Russia reacts to West’s Olympic ‘sabotage’ accusations

French authorities reported arson attacks that targeted rail infrastructure hours before the Games opening ceremony

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has dismissed reports about Russia’s alleged involvement in recent attacks on infrastructure in France during the Olympics, describing such claims as “unsubstantiated accusations” and “fakes”.

France's high-speed train network was targeted early Friday by several “coordinated” arson attacks, according to the country’s transport minister. The sabotage paralyzed travel on the high-speed rail ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony.

“Low-quality media outlets, and even respected ones, have recently stopped at nothing to literally blame Russia for everything that is happening,” Peskov said, dismissing the accusations aimed at Moscow as “unsubstantiated fakes.”

He added that such reports without evidence do nothing for the reputation of the media outlets as supposedly "reliable sources of information."

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Last week, France’s minister of the interior said officials thwarted four credible planned attacks for the Olympics, including one that was allegedly tied to a Russian national.

According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, a 40-year-old Russian man was taken into custody three days before the opening of the Games. The incident raised fears of his alleged “intention to organize events likely to cause destabilization during the Olympic Games,” the office told NBC news.

Outgoing Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Monday that the profiles of those who may have been behind the Friday rail attack “resembled the ultra-left’s operating procedure,” but that “the question is if these people were manipulated by others or acted on their own behalf.”

On Monday, French authorities also reported that a number of fiber optic networks have been sabotaged across the country.

Meanwhile, Russian television channels and streaming services are not airing this year’s Olympic Games due to the IOC’s ruling on the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes. While initially banning their participation, the international body later ruled that a limited number of individuals from the two countries could take part in the Olympics under a neutral flag. Just 36 Russian athletes are thought to have been approved, but 20 have since refused to take part, citing humiliating conditions. ​

The Paris Summer Olympics is the first event in 40 years to be boycotted by Russia. Previously the USSR snubbed the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles citing “security concerns and chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria being whipped up in the United States.”