March 19, 2016 (IB Times) Amid growing tensions between
the two nations, Russian spies pose a significant risk to Sweden, according to
an annual report from the Swedish security service. Russia’s aggressive spying tactics
include various forms of psychological warfare via “extreme movements,
information operations and misinformation campaigns” designed to target both
policymakers and the general public, the report warns. This is the second
consecutive year that the report singled out Russian spies as Sweden’s biggest
intelligence threat. The 2016 report found that about a dozen diplomats are
operating as spies, despite Stockholm asking some Russian Embassy staff to
leave in 2015. Other spies reportedly worked for airlines and businesses
operating in Sweden. “We see intelligence activities in all these different
areas. In the political, economic, military, and so on. The overall picture is
very disturbing,” Wilhelm Unge, one of the counterespionage researchers who worked
on the report, told local media. Sweden is not a NATO member, but in its role
in the European Union, it participates in economic sanctions imposed by the
28-nation bloc against Russia over its intervention in Ukraine. Sweden has also
called out Russia in recent years for allegedly sending a submarine into the
Stockholm archipelago and its increased military activity in the Baltic Sea,
including bombers rehearsing an attack on Sweden. It’s moved to increase
defense spending and military co-operation with neighboring Finland, also a
non-NATO EU member. Iran and China also represent intelligence threats to
Sweden, the report found. Among terrorist groups, the Islamic State has
increasingly become a potential danger, with growing efforts to radicalize
young people, the report concluded. More than 300 people have traveled from
Sweden to fight in Syria and Iraq with the militants also known as ISIS. Of these, 135 have since returned, while 44 are
dead.
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