This week's trial of three undercover operatives, accused of helping the Kremlin to wage a hybrid warfare campaign to 'destabilise' France, sounds like a surefire recipe for drama, sophistication, and intrigue. If only. Over the course of three days, in a spacious, pine-panelled courtroom on the northern edge of Paris, the case against three seemingly unremarkable Bulgarian men, seated behind glass and shadowed by three police officers who seemed absorbed with their own mobile phones, unfolded with all the panache and excitement of a half-whispered lecture in a library.
'I had absolutely no idea where we were,' cried Georgi Filipov, while another echoed, 'I did it for the money.' All three were jailed on Friday for two to four years. However, to bemoan the barely audible banality of it all is to miss the truth. The banality is the whole point. Like the cheap drones that both Russia and Ukraine now use, the three men represent a low-budget evolution of modern hybrid warfare.
Rising in turn inside their glass cage, Georgi Filipov, Nikolay Ivanov and Kiril Milushev admitted carrying out the acts but denied working for a foreign power as well as antisemitism. In May 2024, the trio conspired to spray red paint on the Wall of the Righteous along the River Seine, leaving 35 red handprints on the Shoah memorial.
This act marked the beginning of a series of vandalistic incidents in France, culminating in global news coverage, often amplifying through networks linked to Russian social media trolls aiming to sow discord and unrest in Western democracies. France has become a prime target for the Kremlin, presenting an opportunity to exploit societal divisions and vulnerabilities.
The Kremlin's traditional methods of using highly trained spies have shifted towards enlisting a disaffected group, with these three men serving as pawns in a larger strategy. Through their testimonies, they portrayed themselves as victims of circumstance rather than willing participants in a Russian scheme. Nevertheless, the court sentenced them, reflecting the fine line between individual culpability and broader geopolitical tactics at play.
'I had absolutely no idea where we were,' cried Georgi Filipov, while another echoed, 'I did it for the money.' All three were jailed on Friday for two to four years. However, to bemoan the barely audible banality of it all is to miss the truth. The banality is the whole point. Like the cheap drones that both Russia and Ukraine now use, the three men represent a low-budget evolution of modern hybrid warfare.
Rising in turn inside their glass cage, Georgi Filipov, Nikolay Ivanov and Kiril Milushev admitted carrying out the acts but denied working for a foreign power as well as antisemitism. In May 2024, the trio conspired to spray red paint on the Wall of the Righteous along the River Seine, leaving 35 red handprints on the Shoah memorial.
This act marked the beginning of a series of vandalistic incidents in France, culminating in global news coverage, often amplifying through networks linked to Russian social media trolls aiming to sow discord and unrest in Western democracies. France has become a prime target for the Kremlin, presenting an opportunity to exploit societal divisions and vulnerabilities.
The Kremlin's traditional methods of using highly trained spies have shifted towards enlisting a disaffected group, with these three men serving as pawns in a larger strategy. Through their testimonies, they portrayed themselves as victims of circumstance rather than willing participants in a Russian scheme. Nevertheless, the court sentenced them, reflecting the fine line between individual culpability and broader geopolitical tactics at play.
