The Stars of David that appeared on numerous facades in Paris and its northern suburbs at the end of October were immediately interpreted as another anti-Semitic action within the framework of the hate campaign against the Jewish community in the wake of the new war in Gaza. . After the initial mystery about its authors, it is now known that behind the graffiti is a shady character, the pro-Russian Moldovan businessman Anatoli Prizenko, who maintains that his intention was not anti-Semitic but quite the opposite.
The graffiti, made with a mold and in blue, provoked indignation because they represented a campaign to point out the Jews and awakened the worst ghosts of the persecutions of the 1930s and 1940s. The enigma about its authorship began to be cleared up with the arrest of a Moldovan couple, surprised in the middle of their task. The man and woman, in an irregular situation in France and who have now left the country, confessed that they had been hired by someone, via the internet, who paid them 50 euros each for the work.
As a consequence of these events, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its protest to the Russian authorities on Thursday, not because of the graffiti itself - since the case is under judicial investigation - but because the news about the graffiti was amplified and disseminated massively. -through thousands of fake accounts- by a well-known Russian digital disinformation network, Recent Reliable News (RRN) or Doppelgänger-, undoubtedly with a destabilizing spirit. It is the second time in a few months that the Quai d'Orsay expresses its complaint to Moscow about manipulative maneuvers.
The case has bizarre edges because Prizenko, known as a pro-Russian separatist Moldovan who served a prison sentence years ago for fraud, denied before several French media that the graffiti was a hostile action towards the Jewish community. According to him, the initiative came from an enigmatic European Jewish Community and another supposed organization, unknown until now, called the Shield of David. According to the newspaper Le Monde, Prizenko, well connected to Moscow, posted anti-Semitic messages on social networks in recent years.
Speaking to BFMTV, Prizenko, 48, said he was very surprised by the agitated reaction in France, since, in his opinion, "this action was organized with the aim of supporting Jews living in France and Europe." after the October 7 attacks in Israel.
The Kremlin completely denied being behind the operation. "It is neither sabotage nor a provocation," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.
For experts on Russian poisoning methods, there is little doubt about Moscow's hand in the matter. According to Elie Guckert, author of Comment Putin a conquis nos cerveaux (How Putin has conquered our brains), who was interviewed by France Info, "we must understand that although we have begun to become disinterested in Russian aggression in Ukraine, Russia continues to take an interest in French public opinion and mobilizes considerable means to manipulate it. For Guckert, Moscow intends to "stir up tensions" and give the image that "the French Government is incapable of managing security in its country."
The newspaper Le Figaro yesterday drew a parallel between what happened in Cologne on Christmas 1959. Facades of churches, a synagogue and even the imposing Gothic cathedral of the German city appeared with graffiti of swastikas. Fifteen years after the defeat of Nazism, this action caused commotion. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, Cologne's son and who had been its mayor, expressed his dismay. Weeks later, new swastikas, anti-Semitic messages and cheers to the Third Reich appeared on facades of other cities in the Federal Republic of Germany. It was later learned that the Soviet KGB was behind what was called the "swastika epidemic", with the obvious purpose of discrediting West Germany in the middle of the Cold War and when the two Germanys, the FRG and the GDR, were one of the hottest points of friction in the collision between blocks.
The controversy with Russia regarding the graffiti with the Star of David occurs on the eve of the demonstration against anti-Semitism that will be held in Paris this Sunday, an initiative that creates political tensions due to the participation of far-right leaders. The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, and more than thirty members of her Cabinet will attend the march.
