<\/figure>\n Putin 'resuscitated at 9.05pm' after cardiac arrest in hotel room and moved to ICU <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The government staged an emergency meeting earlier this month and transport minister Cl\u00e9ment Beaune pledged to send sniffer dogs into trains to check for their presence. But French intelligence agents say they strongly suspect Russia of amplifying fears by spreading so-called doppelganger articles on social media that appear to come from respected news outlets but are bogus.<\/p>\n
Agence France Presse's fact-checking body identified two \u2013 both of which are pro-Russian. The first \u2013 supposedly from regional newspaper La Montagne \u2013 claimed insecticides used to kill the pests had fallen foul of a ban on Russian chemicals brought in following its Ukraine invasion last year (2022).<\/p>\n
But La Montagne said it had never published the article which was a forgery. Fact-checkers said bedbugs were present in France long before heavy international sanctions were taken against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
More bogus news purporting to come from national title Lib\u00e9ration blamed Ukrainian refugees for the bedbug surge. It was posted on a Telegram account linked to Kremlin-owned news outlet Russia Today.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A similar fake piece was attributed to respected French newspaper Le Figaro. French foreign minister Catherine Colonna has denounced such "doppelganger" articles \u2013 often anti-Ukrainian \u2013 churned out by Russian troll factories as "unworthy of a country with a UN security council seat."<\/p>\n
Some 355 outlets had been "cloned" in this way and the foreign ministry\u2019s own website was also targeted. Earlier this month MP Mathilde Panot, parliamentary leader of the France Unbowed party, said the number of bedbug infestations across the country had risen from 200,000 in 2017 to 1.2 million last year (2022).<\/p>\n
But handlers of two sniffer dogs trained to pinpoint the pests via their smell said there had been no explosion in cases in Paris. Asked if the capital was besieged Aldo Massaglia, who co-runs the Doggybug anti-pest company, said: "Frankly no. <\/p>\n
"We\u2019ve been in the business for more than a decade and we\u2019ve always been called to hotels, schools and cinemas. People need to calm down or they\u2019ll end up putting us back in lockdown at this rate. <\/p>\n
"It\u2019s as if someone was seeking to damage the reputation of the country before the Olympics."<\/p>\n
To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters <\/i><\/b>here<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\nVladimir Putin<\/li>\n Russia<\/li>\n Bedbugs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nSource: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bookmark Never miss any of the fun stuff. Get the biggest stories and wackiest takes from the Daily Star, including our special WTF Wednesday email Thank you for subscribing! Never miss any of the fun stuff. Get the biggest stories and wackiest takes from the Daily Star, including our special WTF Wednesday email We have more newsletters Russia recruited an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Russia recruits bedbugs in hybrid war on the West security bosses claim - mormonMediaReviews<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n