According to the security and intelligence services in the Nordic countries, around a third of the staff at Russian embassies in the countries are in fact President Vladimir Putin’s intelligence officers.
See the series: “The Shadow War”
In Sweden, 10 of the 13 identified suspected intelligence officers are diplomats, but all enjoy immunity and are protected by the Vienna Convention.
– Russia’s intelligence capacity is placed here to conduct illegal activities against Sweden, i.e. harmful activities against Sweden, says counterintelligence chief Daniel Stenling at Säpo, adding that Russia is the country with the most intelligence officers in Sweden.
Leaked information from inside Russia
But at the same time, the Swedish authorities have been very secretive about who they are. SVT, DR, NRK, EPN can now reveal 38 suspected Russian spies in the Nordics. The disclosure is a collaboration with the excavation organization Dossier Center, which has access to thousands of leaked databases from within Russia where information about the people, their background and special areas is found.
Read more about the suspected Russian spies here.
Through research and intelligence work, Task Review can verify a total of 21 Russian intelligence officers in Sweden who belong to either the civilian foreign intelligence service SVR, the military intelligence service GRU or the federal security service FSB. The information has been confirmed by two different intelligence and security services in the West.
Several have been deported
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that five Russian diplomats would be expelled from Sweden.
– Their activities on our territory have been incompatible with their status as diplomats, says Foreign Minister Tobias Billström (M) about the decision.
Earlier, in April last year, three Russian diplomats were expelled and another five left Sweden for other reasons.
See how Mission Review identified the suspected spies – in the clip above
In the “Shadow War” series, ten suspected spies in Norway are also revealed. There, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs acted a week before the premiere of the series and expelled 15 Russian diplomats. In Denmark, seven intelligence officers are revealed, all of whom have left the country.