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GAMES ‘SPY’ NAMED
Russian reality TV star ‘spy’ arrested over threat to Paris Olympics opening ceremony is REVEALED with gun-toting pic
He is said to have wanted to create ‘an opening ceremony like no other’
A RUSSIAN reality TV star has been named as the alleged spy arrested over a threat to the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
The 40-year-old chef was today named as Kirill Gryaznov, a former love show heartthrob thought to have become an FSB asset.
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He was nabbed after cops spent months watching him and eventually raided his flat in central Paris on Sunday.
Pictures on Gryaznov's Instagram account, followed by 10,000 people, show him posing with guns.
He is said to have boasted about turning the start of the Paris Olympics into "an opening ceremony like no other".
The opening ceremony begins on Friday night, with 80 barges full of athletes and other competitors sailing down the River Seine in front of thousands of guests including VIPs.
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Gryaznov starred in a Russian Bachelor-style show, in which six women tried to seduce him.
One clip showed the 'accomplished businessman and budding restaurateur' explain how he had been unlucky in love.
Griaznov has reportedly been living in France for 14 years.
But he revealed himself to authorities when the alleged spy got drunk and was kicked off a plane that was due to take him from Istanbul to Paris in May.
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He switched to a flight from Bulgaria, and stopped off en route at a restaurant from where he rang his intelligence handlers in Moscow.
Griaznov then boasted that he was going to give Paris an ‘opening ceremony like no other’, according to phone intercepts.
How Paris is looking to use artificial intelligence to boost security ahead of the Olympics amid safety concerns in France
It was on July 21 that Gryaznov was arrested in his flat on Rue Saint-Denis, close to Notre Dame Cathedral and the Louvre museum.
Prosecutors in Paris said the search of the Russian national’s apartment had been carried out at the request of the Interior Ministry.
Agents found evidence of a ‘large-scale project’ that could have had ‘serious’ consequences during the three weeks of the Games.
French cops confirmed they arrested a Russian man on suspicion of planning to destabilise the huge Games, which begin in just two days.
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Authorities said several plots to disrupt the Olympics have been foiled ahead of the opening ceremony on Friday.
The unnamed man faces allegations of "sharing intelligence with a foreign power with a view to provoking hostilities in France".
This carries a potential prison term of up to 30 years.
Agents in the home found evidence that suggests he was "preparing pro-Russian operations to destabilise France" during the Olympics, according to French media.
They also found information which suggests his "large-scale project" could have had "serious" consequences.
Le Monde revealed that the man was trained as a chef in Paris after moving there in 2010 and worked on cooking TV shows.
During his 14 years in France, he spent time working in a Michelin star ski resort restaurant in Courchevel, the Alpine ski resort favoured by Russian oligarchs, before moving to Paris in 2012.
In 2012 he also allegedly told his landlady he'd be returning to Russia to work for the government via emails, seen by Le Monde.
But he took part in a civic training day, a mandatory integration step for those who want to become French nationals, in April 2013.
He described himself on his CV as a ‘private chef’ but made no mention of any Russian government links.
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His arrest came after police officers from the elite research and intervention brigade, called in by the DGSI, the French MI5, conducted a dawn raid on his home.
In June, Microsoft said Russia was seeking to undermine the Olympics with the creation of fake websites replicating authentic French media outlets stirring up claims about terrorism.
Paris Olympics 2024 security operation
By Ellie Doughty
A mammoth security operation has been launched in the French capital ahead of the Olympics this month.
Paris 2024 is in fact set to become the most guarded Games ever with over 60,000 cops and soldiers, drones, helicopters and AI surveillance after months of growing safety concerns.
Over 43 countries are involved in ensuring the Olympics are kept secure with French officials claiming the "unprecedented" operations are at least three times larger than at London 2012.
French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said over one million people have been screened ahead of the Olympics.
He said: "We are here to ensure that sport is not used for espionage, cyberattacks or to criticise and sometimes even lie about France and the French".
In June, a 26-year-old Russian former soldier was arrested after accidentally triggering explosives in a hotel room at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
He was said to be targetting a hardware store north of Paris, as part of a "vast sabotage campaign orchestrated in Moscow," said an intelligence source.
High-profile stunts have also raised suspicion that foreign actors are trying to influence French public opinion or stoke divisions, notably about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or the killing of thousands of civilians by Israel in Gaza.
Stunts include dummy coffins labelled ‘French soldiers in Ukraine’ left by the Eiffel Tower in June, and red hands tagged on Paris’s main Holocaust memorial in May.
In October, soon after Hamas’s attack, stars of David were tagged on buildings in the Paris region, with two Moldovans suspected to be working for the FSB later arrested.
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