Man charged with spying for Russia in Sweden

Prosecutors in Sweden on Monday said that a man whose identity was not released supplied information to Russian spies over several years while posing as a consultant for various companies.

Reuters reported that the Swedish Prosecution Authority announced Monday that the man worked for Volvo and Scania, a Swedish manufacturer that produces trucks. He faces a “lengthy sentence” if convicted, according to a top prosecutor.

“While a consultant at his former workplaces, I allege that he obtained material with the purpose of providing information to a foreign power, in this case Russia,” prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said, according to the news service.

“The man was apprehended whilst meeting a Russian diplomat where he had just received 27,800 Swedish crowns [$3,360] from the diplomat,” Ljungqvist added.

The identity of the diplomat to whom the unidentified man was accused of meeting was also not released. In a separate statement, an official with the Swedish Security Service warned that “attacks on Sweden from other countries have been broadened and deepened in recent years,” according to Al Jazeera.

“They are aimed not least at our economic prosperity and our fundamental freedoms and rights. In the last year alone the [service] has investigated both assassination attempts and illegal intelligence activities, and also espionage,” warned Daniel Stenling, head of the SSS’s counterintelligence unit.

Sweden’s incident of alleged spying comes just a few weeks after Sweden and two other countries expelled Russian diplomats in response to the expulsion of three European Union diplomats from Russia.