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2023-12-23 Europe
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The hunt for 'Russian spies' turns into an embarrassment for Swedish intelligence
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Viktor Lavrinenko
[REGNUM] On December 13, Swedish authorities ordered the release from custody of a high-ranking officer and his wife, who had been detained two months earlier on suspicion of spying for Russia. At the same time, the case of a married couple who emigrated from Russia, against whom a similar charge was brought, fell apart in court. It seems that the Swedish intelligence services were given the task of fulfilling the quota of captured Russian intelligence officers, but they failed. Stockholm desperately needs evidence of Moscow's insidious machinations to justify its efforts to join NATO and to explain the signing of a military treaty with Washington. But the search for this very evidence is being carried out very clumsily.
Continued from Page 5
"SPIES" RELEASED BEFORE CHRISTMAS
The couple Johan and Lena Huovinen became widely known in Sweden two months ago. Lieutenant Colonel Johan Huovinen taught strategy at the Department of Military Science and History at the Swedish Defense Academy. Now the Swedish media especially emphasize that the military man’s biography included studying at the Russian General Staff Academy in Moscow, which he successfully graduated from in 2009.
Lieutenant Lena Huovinen, an intelligence analyst for the Swedish Security Service (Säpo), served at the secretive Swedish Armed Forces Radio-Communications Surveillance Institute (FRA).
Previously, Johan Huovinen appeared in the press as a military expert. So, last summer, while commenting on the fighting in Ukraine, he talked, for example, about the Russian Lancet attack drone. This device, according to Huovinen, has become one of the biggest threats facing the Ukrainian Armed Forces. And before that, he commented on the fact of the withdrawal of the Ukrainian army from Bakhmut to Swedish readers.
But on October 20, a husband and wife made headlines for a completely different reason. The couple was detained on suspicion of “aggravated unauthorized handling of classified information . ” The prosecutor's office transparently hinted at espionage, and therefore the prospects for the spouses were regarded as very gloomy.
It was reported that the couple was placed in a maximum security prison in the Stockholm suburb of Sollentuna. Moreover, regular security guards were not allowed near them. All work with the detainees was taken over by Säpo (security service) employees, who even checked the food.
Everyone in Huovinen's service was in a panic over his arrest. “It’s very painful to hear this. It's hard for me to stomach this. I was very proud of his knowledge, his obvious natural talent ,” one of the arrested man’s close colleagues told reporters.
Next, the case was in the hands of prosecutors Per Lindqvist and Mats Ljungqvist. They were tasked with providing the court with strong evidence against Johan Huovinen and his wife.
However, prosecutor Lindqvist recently ordered their release - and now the Huovinens will spend the Christmas holidays in freedom. “Everything indicates that the suspects can no longer obstruct the investigation. But suspicions regarding the couple remain, and the investigation will continue,” says Lindqvist.
In turn, an anonymous source told Expressen: “The fact of the release indicates that the investigation found no evidence that the alleged crime would lead to even more serious criminal charges, such as espionage or aggravated espionage.”
Both the man and woman deny committing any offence. However, since the essence of the suspicions presented is still kept secret, the media and the public are demanding at least some details.
What is clear is that the espionage case is falling apart - dangerous spies are not released from custody so easily. They are kept behind bars to prevent them from escaping.
DETENTION IN THE STYLE OF AN ACTION MOVIE
A very similar story developed in parallel. Recently, a Swedish court announced the verdict in the case of Sergei Skvortsov, a Russian with dual citizenship living in this country. The 60-year-old native of Perm and owner of several companies has been living in Sweden since the late 90s, doing business in the import-export sector.
In 1999, he and his wife Elena Kulkova received a residence permit in Sweden, and in 2013, citizenship of the country. Both at one time received education in the field of electronics and technology. Kulkova graduated from the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University, and Skvortsov studied at the Moscow Energy Institute.
On November 22, 2022, two helicopters suddenly hovered over their house in a suburb of Stockholm. The special forces soldiers who descended the ropes easily tied up the elderly Russian and his wife.
Skvortsov’s neighbor, who was shoveling snow at the time, said that the detention was accompanied by a terrible noise, and frightened people crawled out of their houses. “When I looked out the window, I already saw two helicopters hovering very low above the ground. Their lights were not on, the lights were completely turned off ,” said another witness to the incident. Someone even initially suggested that the helicopter was a medical helicopter and that an emergency evacuation of a patient with a heart attack was being carried out.
The arrested spouses were taken to a pre-trial detention center, where Skvortsov had to spend almost a year. His wife was luckier - she was released without any formal charges being brought.
From the very beginning, Swedish law enforcement agencies presented the case as if there were no doubts about the guilt of the detainees. “From July 1, 2014 to November 2022, Skvortsov secretly and/or fraudulently carried out activities in the interests of the Russian state in order to obtain information, the disclosure of which to a foreign power could jeopardize the security of Sweden , ” the Swedish prosecutor’s office said.
He was also accused of creating a platform “for the illegal acquisition of Western technologies ,” including electronic components of various types of devices. The Swedish press wrote that Skvortsov helped obtain for Russia technologies used in weapons systems, including for the creation of nuclear weapons.
Among Skvortsov’s “accomplices,” the Western press named another Russian citizen, Vladimir Kulemekov , who once worked in the Soviet KGB. Kulemekov was credited with leading the Cypriot company Yassco Investments Ltd, which bought the Instrument Electronics company in 2015. Members of its board were Skvortsov, Kulkova and her daughter.
However, Kulemekov, in a conversation with a journalist from the Swedish newspaper Expressen, stated that he never owned the company Yassco Investments and was not Skvortsov’s partner. Sergei Skvortsov himself resolutely denied all accusations against him. His lawyer Ulrika Borg built a defense line on the fact that he was engaged in completely legal matters.
However, the situation for Skvortsov was complicated by the fact that part of his trial was conducted behind closed doors. It was announced that this was being done for national security purposes, and among the witnesses were an American FBI agent and representatives of the Swedish intelligence services.
THE COLLAPSED PROSECUTION
The Swedish prosecutor's office requested five years in prison for Sergei Skvortsov. This already looked suspicious: as a rule, the punishment for such cases is much more serious. And in October 2023, it finally became clear that there was no serious evidence against Skvortsov. The businessman was acquitted.
At the same time, the Swedish court acted very cunningly: the text of the verdict indicates that, supposedly, almost all charges were confirmed. It is alleged that Skvortsov allegedly dealt with companies associated with Russian military intelligence and used Sweden as a transit country to export sanctioned technical products to Russia.
The court also agreed with the opinion of the prosecutor's office that Skvortsov used dummies to deceive Western companies.
Nevertheless, the entrepreneur is acquitted. But why?
The Swedish court explained the acquittal of Skvortsov by the fact that prosecutor Henrik Ohlin was unable to prove the main thing: the presence of an attempt by the accused to obtain confidential secret information concerning Sweden and the United States.
"The key issue in this case was whether the defendant's actions could lead to espionage, " said Judge Jakob Hedenmo. And he added that the prosecutor could not prove such intentions of Skvortsov.
The final document of the court states : “Skvortsov’s activities were aimed only at purchasing technology in the West, and not at obtaining information about Sweden or the United States . ” Therefore, he was released from prison - and nothing prevents the native of Russia from demanding compensation from the state and resuming his business activities.
The cases of the Huovinen spouses and the Skvortsov spouses indicate that the victims of the spy mania raging in Sweden often turn out to be uninvolved and innocent. Its aggravation is due to the fact that the American military is preparing to settle down on the territory of the country . And the “natives” are ready to dig the ground with their noses in order to demonstrate their zeal to the owners.
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Posted by badanov 2023-12-23 00:00||
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