French Minister for European Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot said this in an interview with TF1, Radio Svoboda reports.
"The bedbug controversy has been largely amplified by accounts linked to the Kremlin, and they have even created a false connection between the arrival of Ukrainian refugees and the spread of bedbugs," the minister said.
Asked whether the government believes that Russian accounts "organized" the panic, Barrot did not confirm, saying that instead the disinformation campaign "amplified" existing fear to create a sense of insecurity.
Barrot noted that Russian cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns have intensified over the past two years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
After social media users posted footage of insects crawling in high-speed trains and the Paris metro, French and foreign media widely covered the situation.
The deputy mayor of Paris called on the government to help exterminate the insects ahead of the Olympic Games in the summer of 2024, some schools and classrooms were temporarily closed, and metro and railroad cars were thoroughly inspected. But authorities said no signs of any emergency were found.
In October 2023, the media reported that bedbugs had been found in France's transportation: the government was worried about a scandal before the 2024 Olympics.