Russian spy fund paid millions to defend assassins and agents

On paper, Pravfond is supposed to help Russian citizens in the EU with legal issues. But in secret, the fund has functioned as a front for Russian intelligence – funding propaganda and legal aid for everything from ordinary Russians to agents and torpedoes.

Danish DR has obtained leaked documents from a European intelligence source which have since been shared with SVT Nyheter, Göteborgs-Posten and a number of other media.

The documents reveal that the Russian state paid a lawyer who defended an FSB agent in a high-profile murder case in Berlin in 2019.

The Swedish department

The fund’s Nordic manager is named Vladimir Pozdorovkin – who has been identified as an officer in the Russian intelligence service SVR. In Sweden, he has built up an organization where the Russian Federation, Rurik, and several local associations received approximately one million kroner directly from Pravfond – exactly what the money has gone to is unclear.

The organisation’s Swedish leader is Rurik’s chairman Lioudmila Siegel. She left Sweden for Russia at the end of last year and has not been able to be reached for an interview.

One of the people who appears in the leak is a woman who runs a flower shop in the Stockholm area.

– I have been responsible for money coming from Russia, she says.

Russia paid

The woman is registered with two associations whose purpose is to assist the Russian diaspora.

– It was Russia that paid. We had lawyers doing the billing and we helped them send papers to the courts.

One of the lawyers is a 65-year-old man who came to Gothenburg from Russia in the 90s.

– They sent me questions, I answered and invoiced, he says.

Neither he nor the woman states that they know of the connection to Russian intelligence. Since Lioudmila Siegel left the country, she is registered at the lawyer’s address.

– That’s right. But that’s just for tax matters and so on, nothing more.

Watch SVT Nyheter’s broadcast about the Russian spy fund here.