PARIS: French security services have investigated migrant communities from former Soviet republics in an effort to secure the upcoming Olympics from the ISIS-K militant group, said the interior minister.
Gérald Darmanin, in an interview with the French media on Tuesday, said ISIS-K was “undoubtedly the most dangerous movement”, though he said authorities hadn’t identified any major threat to the international Games.
ISIS-K is a resurgent arm of the Islamic State, named after the historical region of Khorasan. Darmanin said to counter the danger, security services had “looked particularly at all the people who revolve around the 10 nationalities of the former Soviet Union”.
Last week, Reuters reported that French security services had been trying to address an intelligence blind spot and forge deeper links with Tajiks, Central Asians and other people from former Soviet republics living in France.
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Reportedly Tajiks and other Central Asians living in France had received phone calls or other contacts from police seeking information on them and their communities.
Darmanin also outlined some of the security steps taken by the French authorities to prepare for Friday’s opening ceremony of the mega sports event along the Seine River, a spectacular and complex event.
“We checked all the cellars of the buildings along the Seine on the route of the ceremony. The catacombs were also checked,” he said. “Thousands of manhole covers were welded shut.”
He added the opening ceremony would go ahead as scheduled as long as there were no major storms. He expected that about 2-3 billion people worldwide would view the opening ceremony.
