Sweden’s security service, Säpo, said on Monday that it had uncovered and stopped a Russian intelligence operation in Stockholm involving an officer from the SVR and an agent recruited from another country’s embassy.
Säpo released a photograph on Monday afternoon showing two men with blurred faces at a pub in Stockholm, DR reports. According to the service, one of the men was a Russian intelligence officer from the foreign intelligence service SVR. The other was an agent recruited from another country’s embassy in the Swedish capital.
Christoffer Wedelin, assistant operational chief at Säpo, said the aim was to use the agent to obtain information about Sweden that Russia could not otherwise access because of the war in Ukraine. The operation was exposed and stopped. Wedelin said the case has not had major consequences for Sweden.
SVT reported that the two men, along with a further Russian intelligence officer linked to the case, have left Sweden. The Swedish broadcaster also reported that the operation was intended to weaken Swedish decision-making processes and to discredit NATO, which Sweden joined after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Warnings from Säpo and Estonia’s Kapo
The disclosure follows Säpo’s most recent threat assessment, published in March 2026, which named Russia as the biggest threat to Swedish security and said the threat is expected to grow. The assessment said Russian intelligence and security services primarily conduct espionage and influence operations, and seek to acquire technology. Säpo chief Charlotte von Essen said the pattern is marked by offensive, covert influence activity against European countries, including Sweden.
Säpo is Sweden’s counterpart to the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, PET. As reported by DR, Estonia’s internal security service, Kapo, reached a similar conclusion earlier in 2026. Kapo said 16 people with links to Russian security services were detained in Estonia in 2025.
Most of those detained were ordinary citizens without public sector jobs or access to sensitive information, according to Kapo. The service said Russia wanted to use them as one-off collaborators to spread Russian propaganda, because propaganda is more effective when carried by local voices.
Säpo said the agent in Stockholm was tasked with collecting information that Russian intelligence could use to influence debate on polarizing questions. The stated purpose was to create division and confusion in the population.
Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer said on Monday afternoon that the government views the case seriously, and described it as part of a pattern of Russian attempts to advance its interests in Sweden. He said the case has nothing to do with the Swedish general election, which is scheduled for September 13.
