It is Thursday evening, October 5, 2023, and on the Eurostar train from Paris to Amsterdam, the train’s cloth-covered seats are checked before passengers are seated. A boy cut up garbage bags and folded them on his chair, telling his neighbor in English, “My friends in Holland should do this.” After arriving in Amsterdam, a couple takes off their coats despite the cold. They kicked them out as well as their bags before leaving the station.

It seems that the entire train has read or heard it: Paris is full of bugs. At least this is the image that prevails on social media at the end of September and the beginning of October. The French and foreign press often write about bedbug epidemics as well Norwegian Refugee Council. Weekends in Paris have been cancelled, and Eurostar will carry out additional cleaning of trains from Paris. The government feels compelled to respond.

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Bed bugs are on the rise in ‘deserted’ Paris.

The problem exists: there are bedbugs in Paris and monitoring services received more reports last fall. It was also clear that social media increased the problem. But now it turns out there’s more going on.

French Minister of State Jean-Noel Barrot (European Affairs) made the announcement on Friday on TF1 TV channel a favour Contributed by Russia. “The bedbug controversy has been artificially heightened by social media accounts that have been identified as being of Russian origin or inspiration.”

Find out this Government Service Vigenome, which investigates foreign interventions aimed at destabilizing public opinion. These accounts, among others, presented a “false connection between the arrival of Ukrainian refugees and the spread of bedbugs,” Parrott said. It is not possible to say exactly how big Russia’s share in the panic was – Barrow only said on TF1 that Russia had “privately” exaggerated the matter.

The Minister of State stressed that the issue is not an isolated case: Russia’s attempts to influence public opinion in France have increased since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Russia also participated in Dozens of blue stars of David Which was found in Paris shortly after Hamas invaded Israel and started the war in Gaza. This worries the Foreign Secretary, not least because Europe is on the eve of elections.

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