French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has discussed the expulsion of 39 Russian citizens due to their radicalisation.

According to BFM TV, the Interior Minister said about 60 Russians suspected of radicalisation are currently under administrative arrest. 39 of them are to be deported with the consent of the Russian authorities.

"We have compiled a list of 39 Russian citizens whom we are particularly monitoring and suspect of radicalisation. We presented this list to the Russian authorities last week," the minister said.

The latter have been "identified" by the Russian authorities, and "we are going to go through the expulsion process," Gerald Darmanen said.

Other Russian citizens under special monitoring "are not at large," the minister stressed. "They are either in prisons or administrative detention centres," he added.

Following the murder of teacher Dominique Bernard in Arras by a radical man of Russian origin, the government wants to demonstrate an image of steadfastness. The executive branch is thus demonstrating its desire to expel those on what is known as Dossier S as soon as possible. Specifically, the authorities have asked prefects to pay particular attention to "people from the Caucasus aged 16 to 25".

On 13 October, an Islamist from Chechnya, 20, killed a literature teacher and injured two other people with a knife in a lyceum in Arras, northern France (The Chechen Republic, also referred to as Chechnya, is a federal subject of the Russian Federation; the Ukrainian parliament has recognised it as the temporarily Russian-occupied territory of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria – ed.). Afterwards, the country introduced a high terrorist threat state.

On 16 October, an Islamic extremist shot dead two Swedish fans before the start of a match between Sweden and Belgium. Authorities said the Tunisian suspect was killed during a police operation to arrest him.

A range of EU countries have since stepped up anti-terrorism measures and detained suspects accused of plotting terrorist attacks.