SOLNA, Sweden
(AP) — The Swedish security service SAPO accused Russia on Wednesday of using as
many as one-third of its diplomatic staff in the Scandinavian country for
clandestine intelligence gathering.
Offering an unusual
glimpse into the hush-hush world of counter-espionage, SAPO chief analyst
Wilhelm Unge described the Russian spies as "highly educated and often
younger than during the Soviet era. They are driven, goal-oriented and socially
competent."
Naming Russia as "the biggest intelligence threat
against Sweden , followed by Iran and China ,"
he said SAPO last year stopped several attempts by Russia to obtain Swedish technology
for military purposes. He declined to give specifics.
The Russian Embassy
didn't answer an email seeking comment to the Swedish charges..
SAPO warned last
year that Russia had stepped up its political, economic and military espionage
in Sweden — which isn't a NATO member but cooperates closely with the alliance
— amid deteriorating relations with the West over the Ukraine crisis.
"There are
hundreds of Russian intelligence officers around Europe
and the West. They violate our territory every day," Unge told reporters
at SAPO headquarters in Solna, just outside Stockholm , at the launch of the agency's
annual report.
"What's
notable is that about one-third of the Russian diplomatic personnel are in
reality not diplomats but intelligence officers," he said.
"Why don't we
send them out?" he asked. "Counter-espionage comes with the
complication that we're following other governments. This becomes politics
directly. So we don't own the decisions of who should or shouldn't be in Sweden . That's
up to the government."
The Foreign
Ministry, which accredits foreign diplomats in Sweden , declined to say whether
they shared SAPO's assessment or whether any Russian diplomats had been
expelled in the past year.
"We expect Russia to
respect the Vienna Convention and that their diplomats are actually
diplomats," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Ekberg said.14
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