Sweden halts Russian intelligence operation, minister says

Sweden’s Security Service has stopped a Russian intelligence operation that was partly intended to damage the country’s reputation, SVT reported. Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer said the government viewed the matter seriously.

The Security Service had investigated and monitored the operation for an extended period. Its assessment is that Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, SVR, recruited an agent from another country’s embassy in Sweden.

“We know that state actors such as Russia are acting offensively in Sweden to advance their aims,” Strömmer told SVT. He said the operation was not believed to be connected to Sweden’s election in September, but was part of a broader pattern in which Russia works strategically and over the long term.

Strömmer urged people to remain aware of and alert to these methods, adding that the government was continuously and closely monitoring such threats.

Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said the government had acted decisively, as it had in similar situations in the past. The individuals involved, who had been accredited as diplomats, were forced to leave Sweden because of their activities in the country, she said.