In Serbia, eleven people were arrested on Monday, accused of a series of notable deeds in France in May and September, reports the news agency AFP.
"They... splashed green paint on the Holocaust Museum, several synagogues and a Jewish restaurant, put up signs with genocide content and placed pig heads near Muslim religious buildings. Their goal was to spread ideas and incentives for hate, discrimination and violence", it is announced in a statement from the Serbian Ministry of the Interior.
"Foreign service"
A twelfth person is also being hunted, openly accused of having trained the others "on behalf of a foreign intelligence service".
In Serbia - with good contacts with Russia - the country or intelligence service is not mentioned by name.
In France, which has seen several similar events in recent years, there is clear talk of Russian influence.
One can't help but draw parallels to similar events that have been proven to have been made with foreign involvement, said Laurent Nuñez, police chief in Paris, quickly after the pig attacks in September.
Unit in Russian GRU?
According to, among others, the news site EU Alive French investigators are primarily pointing fingers at the Service for Special Activities (SSD) - a relatively newly formed unit within the Russian intelligence service GRU.
SSD consists, according to the American think tank CSIS among other things of the notorious former GRU unit 29155, which has been accused of being behind murder and sabotage abroad since the 1960s.
However, the Russian side regularly denies any involvement in the French events.
