Russian espionage activities targeted at Sweden are expected to increase as the country enters the NATO alliance, the head of the Swedish Security Service Charlotte von Essen said on Tuesday.
Sweden, like Finland, signed the accession protocol to join the NATO alliance in the summer of last year, yet Turkey and Hungary still have not ratified the countries’ membership into their national laws – meaning accession prospects are at a standstill.
However, Swedish security is being challenged by a deteriorating external situation resulting from the war in Ukraine and a rise in threats from Russian intelligence services, von Essen told the national conference of the Swedish People and Defence in Sälen.
“We see intelligence activities, where people want to obtain sensitive information. But also other types of attack, such as influence operations and various forms of sabotage.”, she said, adding that some critical infrastructures are particularly targeted.
According to von Essen, three sectors call for “special attention”, namely “telecommunications, electricity supply and the transport of critical material.”
According to her, the Swedish Security Service has intensified its work to meet the deteriorating external situation, making it more difficult for Russia to conduct intelligence activities in Sweden and increase society’s resilience.
Sweden has seen some high-profile cases of espionage in recent months, namely the case of former secret service agents Kia brothers, who were accused of doing the bidding of the Russian military intelligence service GRU.
According to von Essen, the Swedish Security Service and the Military and Security Service (MUST) are working to prevent such cases from occurring again.
“We work intensively together with MUST to prevent it. But in the end, you can never completely guarantee that this will not happen again”, she concluded.
(Charles Szumski | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
