Three court verdicts in Serbia in December 2025 confirm that an unspecified Russian intelligence agency sponsored acts to desecrate Jewish and Muslim places of worship in and around Paris earlier in 2025. The three Serbian men pleaded guilty and were sentenced for their part in these and other attacks in France as well as Germany. One was jailed for 18 months, the other two given house arrest. Criminal cases against other members of the group continue.

As the three men had reached a plea agreement with prosecutors and the verdicts were issued on the basis of those agreements, they did not appeal (see below).

In May 2025, the three men were part of a group that sprayed green paint on three synagogues in Paris during the Jewish Sabbath. Green is a colour associated with Islam. Among those condemning the attacks was the mayor of Central Paris, Ariel Weil. "We know where 'militant' acts begin, but we don't know where they end," he wrote (see below).

In September 2025, the three men were part of a group that planted severed pigs' heads outside nine mosques in and around Paris. Islam considers pigs to be unclean. The person in charge of the prayer room at Anwar El-Madina Mosque said he was "very shocked". "Every time an event like this happens, worshippers wonder if they really are safe when they come to pray," he told a local news outlet (see below).

The verdicts, which the Higher Court in Smederevo provided to Forum 18, state that the group's actions were intended to "incite religious and national intolerance", especially between the Jewish and Muslim communities, and to "destabilise the situation" in Germany and France (see below).

Orders, instructions and money for actions were given to the group by "structures of the intelligence service of the Russian Federation". The verdicts do not specify which Russian intelligence agency sponsored the attacks or identify the members of the Russian intelligence service who organised this group (see below).

French intelligence obtained internal Kremlin documents showing that the Russian presidential administration had "directly approved" the desecration of Jewish monuments in May 2025, the Paris-based investigative portal Mediapart noted in December 2025. A French intelligence summary shows that "[Russia's] presidential office is striving to heighten tensions between these two communities on [French] territory by exploiting divisive debates to sow division in French society and weaken national solidarity" (see below).

French investigators focused on the possible Russian sponsorship of the operations. "Investigators have focused on the former Unit 29155 of the GRU, even though they do not yet have concrete evidence of Russia's involvement," French newspaper Le Monde wrote in September 2025. GRU Unit 29155 is known to have been involved in sabotage, destabilisation operations and assassinations in a range of European countries (see below).

Forum 18 asked the Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure (DGSI), part of France's Interior Ministry dealing with internal security:
- Whether the French authorities believe that the Russian Federation was the initiator, organiser or sponsor of any of the 2025 attacks on Jewish and Muslim places of worship;
- If so, whether this was the finding of the prosecutor's office, the DGSI or another state agency;
- If there is not conclusive evidence, on what likelihood the French authorities believe that the Russian Federation was behind these acts;
- Whether it could share details of any findings about the incidents.
"We acknowledge receipt of your request and thank you for your interest," the DGSI responded on 1 December 2025. "After careful consideration, we regret to inform you that we are unable to proceed further with it."

Forum 18 wrote to Russia's Foreign Ministry, the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Defence Ministry (on behalf of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces (GRU)), and the Russian Embassy in the Serbian capital Belgrade on 22 April 2026. It asked why the Russian state is instructing and financing the carrying out of attacks in Western Europe, including on places of worship.

The SVR's press bureau responded on 27 April but failed to answer Forum 18's question, stating only that "In response to your inquiry, we wish to inform you that official comments from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) regarding current issues are regularly posted on the Service's website (www.svr.gov.ru) in the section titled 'The SVR of Russia Is authorised to state'. At this time, no additional information is available for publication".

Forum 18 had received no response from the other agencies by the end of the working day in Moscow and Belgrade of 27 April.

Russian forces have destroyed places of worship in fighting in Ukraine and confiscated places of worship of communities they do not like in occupied parts of Ukraine (see below).

The 2025 attacks on the Paris synagogues and mosques are the first known attacks at Russian instigation on places of worship elsewhere in Europe. Russian-sponsored attacks – often using locally-recruited criminals – have targeted opposition politicians and sites helping Ukraine to fight against Russia and its occupation of Ukrainian territory (see below).

Andrei Soldatov, a Russian investigative journalist and Russian security services expert, says the Russian intelligence agencies would attack targets such as places of worship "to raise the costs of providing security for the European security agencies". "After such attacks, which are not very costly to organise (and they don't need to be successful), the security agencies have no choice but to increase security measures, i.e. expand the lists of potential targets for attacks which need to be protected," he told Forum 18 (see below).

Predrag Petrović, research director of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, described the convictions of the three Serbian men as "a very inconvenient fact for the authorities in Serbia. They had to do something, first arrest these people, and now pass a verdict." He pointed to "strong anti-Western and pro-Russian sentiment in Serbia" as one of the reasons he sees as to why Russian security services recruit Serbian nationals for operations such as the targeting of places of worship (see below).

3 Paris synagogues sprayed with green paint

On the night of Friday 30 May to Saturday 31 May 2025, attackers sprayed green paint onto the facades of three Paris synagogues: the Grande Synagogue des Tournelles, the Agoudas Hakehilos Synagogue and the Synagogue de Belleville. Green is a colour associated with Islam.

Also sprayed with green paint on the same night were the city's Shoah Memorial and a restaurant in Paris' historic Jewish neighbourhood of Le Marais, the French Interior Ministry said on 31 May 2025.

The attacks took place on the Jewish Sabbath, which runs from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.

"Whatever the perpetrators and their motives, these acts do not aim just at walls: they violently stigmatise French Jews, their memory and their places of worship," the Representative Council of Jews in France (CRIF) declared on 31 May 2025. "The CRIF strongly condemns these acts and hopes that the perpetrators will be arrested as soon as possible."

Then Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on X that he was disgusted by these "despicable acts targeting the Jewish community".

Also condemning the attacks was the mayor of Central Paris, Ariel Weil. "We know where 'militant' acts begin, but we don't know where they end," he wrote on X.

Three Serbian citizens – including Bogdan Djinovic - were arrested in Antibes in south-eastern France on 2 June 2025 as they tried to leave the country. They were charged three days later over the attacks which investigators said had been designed "to serve the interests of a foreign power".

Pigs' heads placed outside 9 Paris area mosques

On the night of Monday 8 September to Tuesday 9 September 2025, attackers placed severed pigs' heads outside the doors of 9 mosques in central Paris and the surrounding suburbs. Among the places of worship targeted were mosques in Paris (including Anwar El-Madina Mosque), Malakoff, Montreuil (Islah Mosque), Montrouge and Gentilly. The pigs' heads were discovered by Muslims coming to pray.

Islam considers pigs to be unclean.

The person in charge of the prayer room at Anwar El-Madina Mosque said he was "very shocked". "Every time an event like this happens, worshippers wonder if they really are safe when they come to pray," he was quoted by BFM news channel on 10 September 2025.

"An investigation was immediately opened," the then Paris Prefect of Police, Laurent Nuñez, noted on 9 September 2025. "Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of these abhorrent acts."

French police began investigating possible links between the desecration of the mosques and Russian intelligence.

Kremlin approval for anti-Jewish operations?

French intelligence obtained internal Kremlin documents showing that the Russian presidential administration had "directly approved" the desecration of Jewish monuments in Paris in May 2025, the Paris-based investigative portal Mediapart announced on 2 December 2025.

A French intelligence summary seen by Mediapart says the Russian authorities were trying to stoke tensions between France's Jewish and Muslim communities. The summary says that the attacks show that "[Russia's] presidential office is striving to heighten tensions between these two communities on [French] territory by exploiting divisive debates to sow division in French society and weaken national solidarity".

Serbian court verdicts identify Russian intelligence as sponsors

Following reports from France that a farmer from Normandy had reported Serbian citizens buying pigs' heads, the Serbian authorities investigated possible suspects. The Serbian authorities arrested 11 suspects in the Smederevo area in late September 2025 in a joint operation by the police and the Security and Intelligence Agency, Serbia's Interior Ministry announced on 29 September 2025. They were ordered held for 48 hours for questioning.

"They carried out these activities between April and September 2025," the statement declared, "by throwing green paint on the Holocaust Museum, several synagogues and a Jewish restaurant, by sticking stickers with 'genocidal' content, by placing pig heads near Muslim religious buildings, all in the Paris area, as well as in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, by placing concrete 'skeletons' with written messages."

Three of the suspects - Aleksandar Savić, Filip Petrović and Nemanja Ćevap, all from the town of Velika Plana - entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors in December 2025. Following this, the Higher Court in Smederevo found the three men guilty of espionage (Criminal Code Article 315, Part 3), inciting racial discrimination (Criminal Code Article 387, Part 4) and criminal association (Criminal Code Article 346, Part 3) in separate court decisions (seen by Forum 18) on 22 and 24 December 2025.

On 22 December 2025, the Court sentenced Savić to a year and a half in prison, according to the verdict seen by Forum 18. The Court ruled that only such a jail term could sufficiently influence the defendant not to commit criminal offences in the future, and only such a sentence would achieve the purpose of punishment. The time spent in detention, from 28 September 2025 until the verdict was pronounced and came into force, was taken into account in calculating his remaining prison term.

On the same day, 22 December 2025, the Court sentenced Petrović to one year's house arrest. Two days later, on 24 December 2025, the Court sentenced Ćevap to six months' house arrest.

As the three men had reached a plea agreement with prosecutors and the verdicts were issued on the basis of those agreements, they did not appeal.

The other eight suspects are not in custody, Radio Free Europe's Serbian Service noted on 6 March 2026.

Instructions, money from "structures of the intelligence service of the Russian Federation"

The group was active from April to September 2025. Those who conducted the attacks had travel and accommodation paid for. They were also promised 1,000 Euros each for completing the various attacks in Paris in spring 2025 (including the attacks on 3 synagogues) and 1,500 Euros each for completing the attacks in and around Paris in September 2025 (including the attacks on 9 mosques). They had to photograph the sites to prove they had conducted the attacks.

The group was led by two individuals – who remained unnamed – who received instructions from Russian intelligence. One of them – identified by Police only as M.G. - was said to be a Serbian citizen. The other was identified only with the nickname "Hunter". The verdicts do not reveal how many members the group had.

M.G. was identified as Momčilo Gajić. He was later found to be living in Moscow, Balkan Insight noted on 27 March 2026.

The Smederevo verdicts, which the Court provided to Forum 18, state that the group's actions were intended to "incite religious and national intolerance", especially between the Jewish and Muslim communities, and to "destabilise the situation" in Germany and France.

Orders, instructions and money for actions were given to the group by "structures of the intelligence service of the Russian Federation". The verdicts do not specify which Russian intelligence agency sponsored the attacks or identify the members of the Russian intelligence service who organised this group.

The Serbian Interior and Foreign Ministries, the Security and Intelligence Agency, and the Russian Embassy in Belgrade did not respond to RFE's questions about the activities of the Russian intelligence service in Serbia.

GRU involvement?

French investigators focused on a Serbian national whom they suspected led the actions against the Paris synagogues and mosques, the French newspaper Le Monde noted on 27 September 2025. Judicial sources told the paper that an arrest warrant had been issued.

The paper also noted the possible Russian sponsorship of the operations. "Investigators have focused on the former Unit 29155 of the GRU, even though they do not yet have concrete evidence of Russia's involvement," Le Monde wrote.

GRU Unit 29155 is known to have been involved in sabotage, destabilisation operations and assassinations in a range of European countries.

Why target places of worship?

Russian forces have destroyed places of worship in fighting in Ukraine and confiscated places of worship of communities they do not like in occupied parts of Ukraine.

The 2025 attacks on the Paris synagogues and mosques are the first known attacks at Russian instigation on places of worship elsewhere in Europe. Russian-sponsored attacks – often using locally-recruited criminals – have targeted opposition politicians and sites helping Ukraine to fight against Russia and its occupation of Ukrainian territory.

With no Russian acknowledgment that it was behind the attacks on places of worship – and other sites – in Paris it is unclear why they were targeted.

Andrei Soldatov, a Russian investigative journalist and Russian security services expert, says the Russian intelligence agencies would attack such targets "to raise the costs of providing security for the European security agencies".

"After such attacks, which are not very costly to organise (and they don't need to be successful), the security agencies have no choice but to increase security measures, i.e. expand the lists of potential targets for attacks which need to be protected," Soldatov told Forum 18 on 23 April. "It's costly, both in human resources and technology. And it distracts the counterintelligence resources from dealing with Russian activities while raising the security costs in general - as a punishment for staying on the Ukrainian side in the war."

Why choose Serbian attackers?

Predrag Petrović, research director of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, says the Serbian authorities were reluctant to see the cases go to court. "This is a very inconvenient fact for the authorities in Serbia. They had to do something, first arrest these people, and now pass a verdict." He pointed to three main reasons he sees as to why Russian security services recruit Serbian nationals for operations such as the targeting of places of worship.

Petrović told Forum 18 that the first is the "strong anti-Western and pro-Russian sentiment in Serbia". "Under the rule of the Serbian Progressive Party, this sentiment has not only been maintained and politically exploited, but also significantly amplified through pro-government media."

Secondly, a large proportion of Serbia's population lives in difficult economic conditions. "Many blame this on Western-imposed liberal reforms and so-called globalist elites," Petrović noted. "This creates a fertile ground for recruitment, as economic frustration and political resentment lower the threshold for engagement in such activities."

Thirdly, "Serbian and Russian security services have developed increasingly close cooperation in recent years", Petrović added. "Russian services have provided support to Serbian authorities in countering what they label as 'colour revolutions', that is, democratic change movements."

Petrović describes political backing for the Serbian authorities – "helping the ruling party remain in power" - as a "significant service provided by Russian intelligence". "In return, Serbian law enforcement responds to Russian malign operations and organised crime only when it has no other choice - typically when confronted with evidence from abroad and forced to act to avoid greater damage," he told Forum 18. (END)

More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Russia

For background information see Forum 18's Russia religious freedom survey

Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments

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