(NewsSpace.com) – The Eiffel Tower is the most popular landmark in France, with an estimated 7 million visitors a year flocking to the monument. On Saturday, June 1, however, five caskets appeared in front of the tower, each inscribed with “French soldiers of Ukraine,” and draped in a French flag. Intelligence officials now say that the incident had Russian origins.
Shortly after the caskets were dropped off, police caught up to the driver of a van seen in the area. He confessed to having arrived in Paris the day before from Bulgaria and that two other men had paid him to transport the caskets. Authorities eventually caught up with the other two suspects, one German and one Ukrainian, at a bus station, where they were reportedly planning to head to Berlin.
During questioning, the men admitted to receiving €400, approximately $435, to place the coffins at the tower. That led intelligence officials to believe that Russia may have had a hand in the incident as a means of manipulating the public’s opinion. They have opened an investigation to see if there are foreign ties.
Additionally, there were two other incidents that happened within the past few months. The first took place in October, shortly after the surprise Hamas attack on Israel that launched an all-out conflict. At that time, authorities found several Parisian walls stenciled with the Stars of David. They traced it back to a Moldovan couple believed to have been paid by Russian intelligence.
Then, in May, red handprints were found on a Holocaust memorial in the City of Light, though the suspects in that case are believed to have fled the country. According to Le Monde newspaper, one of the suspects in the coffin case had been in direct contact with one of the suspects in the handprint case.
The three suspects in the coffin incident have been before a judge and are under investigation for suspicion of committing “psychological violence.”
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