Sweden’s security service has announced that it disrupted a Russian intelligence operation aimed at influencing Swedish decision-making and discrediting the country along with its EU and NATO allies.
The Swedish Security Service (Säpo) said on Monday that the operation had been planned and directed by Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR.
It involved three people working under the cover of diplomatic immunity: An agent recruited from a foreign diplomatic mission in Sweden and two SVR officers.
According to Säpo, the agent’s tasks included gathering information on central Swedish decision-making processes and Sweden’s relations with other countries.
The goal was to enable Russian influence activities on polarising issues in order to undermine decision-making and damage the reputation of Sweden, NATO and the European Union.
Deputy head of operations Christoffer Wedelin said the service had monitored the operation over a prolonged period, documenting meetings at which the agent passed information to the handlers and recording the assignments given.
“When the Security Service became aware of the influence attempts, we acted by protecting vital Swedish protection values and counteracting continued influence. The case shows that Russian intelligence and security services continue to prioritise traditional intelligence work by recruiting human sources, agents, who in turn have acted and tried to influence others.”
The Security Service takes this security-threatening activity very seriously,” said Christoffer Wedelin, Deputy Chief Operating Officer at the Security Service.
“Our assessment is that we have prevented the Russian intelligence operation. They have not succeeded in their mission,” he told journalists.
People were asked to contact the Security Service if they had any suspisions of being the victim of a referral or recruitment attempt.
The three individuals are no longer in Sweden. Because they enjoyed diplomatic immunity they cannot be arrested or prosecuted.
A Säpo spokesperson told Reuters the case was “consistent with the threat we see Russia posing.”
Sweden joined NATO in 2024 after more than two centuries of military non-alignment. Säpo has previously identified Russia, China and Iran as the principal intelligence threats to the country.
The EPP rapporteur for the European Democracy Shield, Swedish MEP Tomas Tobé, has warned that the European Union is still too weak in defending itself against Russian hybrid warfare and foreign information manipulation, calling the Commission’s current proposals insufficiently…
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) June 11, 2026
