Last year’s bed bug scare in Paris, a problem reported by international media, was artificially amplified by social media accounts linked to Russia and its “disinformation” activities, a minister said in French on Friday, Reuters reported.

Disinfection from bed bugsPhoto: Christophe Ena / AP / Profimedia

“The bed bug controversy has been greatly fueled by accounts linked to the Kremlin, and they have even created a false link between the arrival of Ukrainian refugees and the spread of bed bugs,” French European Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barro told TF1.

After social media users posted images of these insects on high-speed trains and the Paris metro, foreign media, including Reuters, reported widely.

The deputy mayor of Paris called on the government to help eradicate the bedbugs ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, with some schools and classrooms temporarily closed and metro and railway carriages thoroughly inspected. But the authorities said that there are no signs of a specific outbreak.

Asked if the government believed the Russian reports had “orchestrated” the panic, Barro declined to confirm, saying instead that the disinformation campaign had “reinforced” existing fear to create a sense of insecurity.

Barro noted that over the past two years, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russian cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns have intensified.

“We know this thanks to the Viginum service, created in 2021, whose mission is to detect such maneuvers aimed at destabilizing public opinion in France and weakening public support for Ukraine,” he said.

In fact, French intelligence services said last October that Russian disinformation had exacerbated the bedbug psychosis.

  • VIDEO “No one is safe”. Paris infested with bugs / People also filmed them in buses and cinemas
  • Bed bugs became the subject of debate in the French parliament after a real psychosis among the population
  • French transport minister denies bed bug infestation on trains but sends trained dogs to find them
  • France: Bed bug scandal – Paris high school infected, teachers exercise ‘right of withdrawal’
  • London fears French bed bug infestation via Eurostar trains: ‘A real source of concern’, says Mayor Sadiq Khan