Trial in Stockholm
Russian technology smuggler stands trial
9/4/2023 6:27 p.m
Recently, more and more cases have come to light in which Russians illegally procure goods for their homeland in Western countries – including in Sweden. A 60-year-old is now on trial there because he is said to have passed on technology to the Russian secret service.
The trial of a Russian-Swedish citizen who is said to have passed on western technology to the Russian military has begun in a Stockholm court. Prosecutor Henrik Olin accused Sergei Skvortsov of “illegal intelligence activities” against the United States and Sweden, an offense that ranks just below that of espionage. If convicted, the 60-year-old faces up to four years in prison. His lawyer denied all allegations.
According to prosecutor Olin, Skvortsov is said to have passed information and Western technology to the Russian military intelligence service GRU. The 60-year-old offered the secret service and “part of the Russian state system” a platform to illegally procure this technology – including electronic devices in particular that Moscow and the Russian armed forces were not able to access on the open market due to export restrictions and sanctions .
According to the indictment, for ten years until his arrest in November 2022, Skvortsov was part of a network established during the Soviet era to illegally procure Western technologies. Experts told the Swedish media that the electronic equipment obtained by Skvortsov could be used for nuclear weapons research, among other things.
As prosecutor Olin reported last week, most of the devices came from the United States. There was a “serious threat to national security interests in Sweden and the United States,” Olin said. “You only have to look at the battlefield in Ukraine to see that there is a real need on the part of the Russian military-industrial complex.”
FBI officials are testifying at the trial
The trial is scheduled to last until September 25th. For reasons of national security, part of the process takes place behind closed doors. Among other things, an FBI representative from the USA and colleagues from the Swedish secret service are to be heard as witnesses. The evidence includes e-mails from the Russian Ministry of Defense to Skvortsov as well as confiscated computers, USB sticks and mobile phones.
Skvortsov and his wife were arrested in November during a dawn raid using two Blackhawk helicopters and a special task force at their home in the Stockholm suburb of Nacka. His wife was later released and is no longer a suspect. The couple emigrated to Sweden in the 1990s. Both have held high positions in several companies for the import and export of industrial goods.
Only in January was a verdict pronounced in Sweden’s biggest espionage scandal to date. Former Swedish intelligence officer Peyman Kia has been sentenced to life imprisonment for spying for the Russian service GRU. His brother received a nearly ten-year prison sentence.
In July, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his country was facing “the most difficult security situation since World War II”. In addition to Russia, he also named China and Iran as threats.