Paris 2024: France turns down over 4,000 accreditation bids amid security concerns

French authorities have rejected more than 4,000 accreditation applications for the Paris Olympic Games, set to begin on July 27, due to concerns about radical links, espionage, and cyberattacks, News.Az reports citing foreign media.

Acting Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche weekly that officials had processed almost a million applications in total and rejected 4,340 people.

“Almost a hundred of them were rejected due to concerns that they were agents trying to gain accreditation by pretending to be in another profession,” Darmanin said.

He added that these people applied as journalists or technical workers, and among their countries of origin were Belarus and Russia.

“They probably wouldn't come to carry out attacks on their own. But in addition to intelligence gathering and traditional espionage, they could gain access to computer networks for later cyberattacks,” Darmanin said.

Some Russian journalists have received accreditation and are already in Paris. The same goes for Russian employees of the International Olympic Committee.

“Apart from the current of the river [where water sports events will take place] and the possibility of bad weather, there is - so far - no identified threat to the Games. Neither our intelligence services nor the foreign services with which we cooperate have detected any foreign threat. However, we must remain humble and vigilant,” Darmanin added.

News.Az