A Swedish-Russian man arrested last year in a spectacular helicopter raid on his suburban Stockholm home was charged in Sweden on Monday with providing Western technology to Russia’s military intelligence.
Sergei Skvortsov, a 60-year-old dual national, was formally charged with carrying out “unlawful intelligence activities” against the United States and Sweden for a decade until his arrest in November 2022, court documents showed.
Skvortsov is suspected of procuring Western technology information and products that were off-limits to Moscow due to international sanctions, and passing them on to Russia’s military industry.
He is accused of having ties to Russia’s military intelligence division, the GRU.
According to the prosecution, Skvortsov had been spying on the United States since January 1, 2013 until his arrest in November 2022, and on Sweden since July 1, 2014.
In the indictment filed with Stockholm district court, prosecutor Henrik Olin accused him of gathering “information and the actual acquisition of various items that the Russian state and the defence forces could not acquire on the open market due to export rules and sanctions.”
Olin accused him of “localising the items requested by the Russian state and the armed forces, negotiating and carrying out the purchase and further organising the transport of the goods while concealing the actual end user.”
Sweden’s charge of “unlawful intelligence activities” is a notch lower than espionage.
Skvortsov, who has been held in detention since his arrest, faces up to four years in prison if found guilty.
