Embassy in Sweden Embassy ● Roster captured ● host list

EURACTIV reported on April 26th that “five Russian diplomats were expelled over accusations of espionage, a first since the Western series of expulsions in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, the Swedish government announced on Monday. Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström first announced the decision in an interview with SVT Nyheter, referring to the expelled Russian diplomats’ spying activities. “Their activities on our territory have been incompatible with their status as diplomats,” Foreign Minister Billström said. However, he did not comment further but referred to the press release that had been issued. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has today summoned Russia’s Ambassador Victor Tatarintsev and announced that five officials at the Russian Embassy in Sweden are being asked to leave the country due to activities that are not compatible with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” the government said. “Activities incompatible with the Vienna Convention”, in this case diplomatic language for espionage.”

Yle reported on April 26th that “a report by Yle’s investigative journalism unit MOT has revealed that one third of staff at Russia’s embassy in Helsinki are actually intelligence agents. The findings were confirmed by the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service Supo. MOT’s investigation also led to the discovery of the identity of three Russian agents who had previously worked in Finland. The three men were officially listed as belonging to embassy staff, but MOT discovered that they actually worked for the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR, the foreign military intelligence agency GRU or the federal security service FSB. Intelligence agents often work in embassies in roles that do not involve a precisely defined diplomatic mission — which gives them freedom to conduct intelligence activities. “People operating with diplomatic status will be granted diplomatic immunity, which means they will not be at risk of being subject to any kind of criminal proceedings,” explained Detective Chief Inspector Mikko Porvali, who is also the author of several books on espionage. MOT’s probe is part of a wider collaboration between Nordic public broadcasters, in which journalists have uncovered the identities of dozens of Russian spies. A separate collaborative investigation by the broadcasters revealed Russia may be planning sabotage in Nordic maritime districts. Swedish broadcaster SVT identified 21 Russian agents, with as many as 13 of them having been employed by the Russian Embassy in Stockholm until at least April 2022. Sweden said on Tuesday that it would expel five Russian diplomats whose activities were found to contravene their diplomatic status.” The identified Russian intelligence officers were: 1) SVR officer Dmitry Otorochkin; 2) GRU officer Vladimir Komarov; 3) Dmitry Dvinjaninov.