How Russia Has Used Antisemitic Graffiti to sow Western division Since 1959

On the night of May 31 to June 1, France’s Holocaust Memorial, three synagogues, and a kosher restaurant in Paris were defaced with green paint. The acts were immediately recognized as coordinated, and by June 2, French authorities had arrested three Serbian citizens—two brothers born in 1995 and a third man born in 2003—who were attempting to flee the country. As reported by France24, AFP, and Le Monde, the suspects have been charged with committing vandalism “to serve the interests of a foreign power.”

That foreign power is Russia.

French investigators uncovered Telegram communications linking the suspects to external handlers and broader operational networks. Intelligence officials familiar with the case have confirmed that the attack fits a growing pattern of Russian disinformation and provocation efforts in Europe.

This incident is not isolated. In October 2023, dozens of Stars of David were spray-painted on buildings across Paris, in what French police later confirmed was a Russian-orchestrated campaign executed through a Moldovan proxy. In May 2024, red handprints were stenciled on the Shoah Memorial in Paris. That too was traced back to Russian information operations aimed at generating panic, fear, and social unrest.

This tactic is not new. In fact, it dates back at least to December 1959, when swastikas were painted on the Roonstraße Synagogue in Cologne, West Germany. That single act triggered a global wave of copycat incidents—over 800 antisemitic attacks were recorded across 34 countries in the following weeks. At first, suspicion fell on neo-Nazis. But as German intelligence later confirmed, the vandals were working under the direction of East German agents acting on Moscow’s behalf.

Then, as now, Russia’s goal was never just to desecrate—it was to destabilize.

The Kremlin uses these acts to ignite outrage, exploit division, and tarnish the image of Western nations on the global stage. When swastikas went up in Cologne, Russia sought to portray West Germany as a society sliding back into fascism.

Today, by targeting Jewish communities in Paris, Russia aims to make France appear fractured, unsafe, and ungovernable.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau called this week’s attacks “deeply disgusting,” and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose great-grandfather once served as a rabbi at one of the targeted synagogues, described the incidents as “dismaying.”

These sentiments, while appropriate, must be matched by a clear-eyed recognition of what’s happening. This is not street crime. It is state-sponsored hybrid warfare. Russia is attacking not just buildings, but the fabric of pluralistic democracy.

By using foreign nationals—often young men from Serbia, Moldova, or other strategically useful countries—Russia gains deniability. By stoking antisemitic fear, it fractures societies. By flooding social media with manipulated imagery and conspiratorial narratives, it inflames public emotion while staying in the shadows.

This isn’t conjecture. It’s the same strategy detailed by George Kennan in his seminal “Long Telegram” in 1946 and later confirmed by decades of Cold War intelligence: Moscow doesn’t attack strength—it exploits weakness. It doesn’t confront unity—it manufactures division.

From the 1959 swastika epidemic in Cologne to the 2025 antisemitic attacks in Paris, the continuity is undeniable.

The methods have changed—spray paint, Telegram, foreign proxies—but the objective remains constant: to weaken the West from within.

The response must go beyond arrests and condemnation. It must include public awareness, international coordination, and a firm acknowledgment that Russia’s war on the West is not only being fought with tanks in Ukraine—but with symbols, lies, and fear in our own streets.