Earlier this year, the Interior Ministry warned of an extremely high “external” threat, with a jihadist attack of the type that occurred at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall in March.
France has suffered a wave of deadly jihadist attacks in recent years, but nothing like the sabotage on its rail network. Friday's incident left hundreds of thousands of travellers in misery, but there was no bloodshed.
Russia is also likely to be viewed with suspicion as it is carrying out a full-scale invasion of its neighboring Ukraine and is waging a large-scale disinformation campaign against France.
Pro-Kremlin social media accounts shared videos disparaging the Paris Games, mocking the water quality of the Seine River and attacking President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
President Macron is a disliked figure in Moscow because of his outspoken support for Ukraine.
Russia has always denied interference, but French officials suspect Moscow's hand in destabilizing the French capital following a series of recent incidents, from a red hand painted on a Holocaust memorial to graffiti painted on buildings warning balconies could collapse.
This week, a Russian man was arrested in Paris on suspicion of planning to organize an act of “destabilization, interference and surveillance.” The Kremlin said media reports about the man were “quite curious,” but said it had no direct knowledge of the arrest.
But none of that necessarily means Russia was involved in the coordinated attack on what Prime Minister Gabriel Attal called the “nerve center of France’s high-speed rail network” on Friday.
Because whoever was behind the sabotage knew exactly where to cause maximum chaos. Russia could not possibly have that kind of influence in the French countryside.
Jean-Pierre Farandou, president of state-owned rail company SNCF, said the saboteurs had concentrated on intersections where they could have the most serious impact.
The arson attack at Courtalain cut off two high-speed rail lines on the Atlantic artery, one heading west to Brittany and the other heading southwest to Bordeaux. The eastern attack cut off the high-speed line to Metz in one direction and Strasbourg in the other.
French security expert Romain de Calviac told the BBC's NewsHour programme that the attack was surprisingly well planned.
“The French security forces and the entire intelligence community here are very concerned that there may have been insider assistance from people working or collaborating with the French rail network,” he said.
“Another option is that this information may not have come from an internal source, but from a foreign source with knowledge of how French networks work.”
Earlier this year, SNCF highlighted a growing trend of attacks on its rail network and said it was constantly monitoring sabotage, especially “in the run-up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games”.
The company said it detected all the attacks on its systems, but only one was able to prevent serious damage, and that was by luck.
“Today was supposed to be a party,” said Jean-Pierre Parandoux. “Everything was ruined.”
