STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Russia poses a serious threat to Swedish security and has become increasingly aggressive in its actions, Sweden’s security police said on Wednesday.
“Russia is currently the single biggest threat (to Sweden),” the Swedish Security Services said in a statement. “The regime’s actions are unpredictable and it is inclined to take big risks.”
The Security Services said the war in Ukraine had changed the security situation drastically, and that Russia now posed a military threat in Sweden’s immediate area as well as threat to Sweden’s internal security.
“Russia considers Sweden to be part of Europe, NATO and the collective West and that increases the threat to Sweden,” Daniel Stenling, head of counter-intelligence, told a news conference.
Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO last year in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Security Services said China and Iran were the other two most prominent threats to Sweden, and that the two were cooperating with Russia.
“Foreign powers are spending vast resources to illegally acquire advanced technology in Sweden,” they said.
(Reporting by Johan Ahlander and Supantha Mukherjee, editing by Anna Ringstrom)
