Many will be quick to place the blame on Russia or Iran, but in the absence of evidence try not to fall for propaganda. Wait for the fog-of-war to clear; eventually evidence will come out.
While I have no problem blaming Russia or Iran, fiber optic cuts are notorious.
There's an old joke about a sysadmin who used to hike and why he kept optic fibre in his backpack: "If I ever get lost, I'll just bury that cable in the ground. In an hour a backhoe will come along to dig it up."
Very organized. Like by a larger group. Or state organized it. And contrary to popular beliefs a ton of anarchists/lefty groups think the nerves of global society sacrosanct. Resulting in putin hireing basically mercs.
I doubt it the aim of disrupting French Olympics would be the act of a state. It's more likely local French anarchists who are just looking to cause some disruption in any way they can.
Unlike something like Nord Stream, what's the end goal of disrupting the media distribution of Olympic events? Also, cutting a fiber optic cable doesn't take significant resources. A shovel (maybe a jack hammer), a side-angle grinder, and knowledge of where the cables run.
> what's the end goal of disrupting the media distribution of Olympic events?
Retaliation for being banned from participating?
I have no more evidence than anyone else on HN, but there’s pretty clear motive for Russia to do something like this. A big enough deal to remind the west they can strike in the heart of Europe, but a benign enough act that it wouldn’t call for an escalation in Ukraine.
Given that the previous act of sabotage was a far-left wing activist, it's highly likely this was the same.
Russia's retaliation for Russian athletes (competing under a Russian flag) being banned is to domestically censor the Olympics and promote alternative competitions (the World Friendship Games and BRICS Games).
Better to avoid starting a war with your sworn enemies before you have to. Hurt feelings is not the worst possible outcome here. I'll note WWI was started not by a foreign enemy or occupying force, but by local radicals (granted, 'locals' only by annexation, I suppose the Austro-Hungarians were the occupying force in this case)
