– They want to influence public opinion and Swedish decision-making, what we usually call the inner important core: our democracy and our way of life that we ourselves have chosen. They are trying to influence that and they have also tried to influence the application for membership, says Thomas Nilsson, newly appointed head of the Military Intelligence and Security Service, Must.
According to the lieutenant general, both the state actor Russia and intermediaries, so-called proxies, are behind the Russian operations.
– We have seen various examples that we interpret as actions coming from Russia as a state actor. Some things you do yourself, other things you do through representatives.
Mustchefen: You allocate resources
Thomas Nilsson does not want to go into whether the recent anti-NATO demonstrations are examples of opinions that the authorities suspect are driven by a foreign power, but he claims that there are several examples of influence attempts of both an overt and covert nature. The Russian statements about “military technical measures” if Sweden joins NATO is one of them.
– That you set aside resources and that you act, we have seen that, says Thomas Nilsson.
In addition to the Swedish NATO process, there are several obvious targets for foreign powers’ espionage and sabotage preparations in Sweden that Must works to address. It concerns, among other things, the rearming of the total defence, new regiments and Swedish deliveries of combat vehicles and ammunition to Ukraine.
– Russia has stated how it views that support, so it is clear that there is a threat to it. We have included that in our planning and taken measures for it.
Foreign citizens have been arrested at protected objects
Thomas Nilsson states that foreign citizens have been arrested by the Armed Forces personnel during the past year in connection with various protected objects, but he does not want to confirm that there is a connection to the aid to Ukraine.
– We in the Armed Forces have intervened in some of our protected objects, which we have the authority to do, but we then hand those individuals over to the police authority, which evaluates to see if anyone should be prosecuted.