In Sweden, a 60-something businessman of Russian origin, naturalized Swedish, who had lived in the country for 25 years, was indicted for spying for Russia. Arrested almost a year ago, he was indicted on Monday, August 28, accused of having illegally transported sensitive military equipment to Russia.
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With our correspondent in Stockholm, Carlotta Morteo
The man denies having exported equipment for military purposes. But the 2,000-page preliminary investigation and the indictment show direct and regular exchanges between Sergei Skvortsov and interlocutors linked to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the GRU, military intelligence, or even the Russian Space Agency.
At the head of a flourishing business of import/export of electronic components, he is said to have bought and transported advanced equipment: for example, instruments used by the armies to intercept and analyze electromagnetic signals. Swedish technologies, but also American and which would have passed through Sweden.
To allow Russia to circumvent the sanctions between 2013 and 2022, Sergei Skvortsov would have falsified the names of the recipients and used false identities to hide the intermediaries, according to elements provided by Swedish intelligence and the FBI. These illegal purchases are only the visible part of a vast network of Russian operations abroad. The Russian-Swedish businessman faces six years in prison. His trial begins on September 4 and will last a month.
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