Nordic 007: The Quiet Rise Of Russian Spies In Sweden
STOCKHOLM — “Disappears in Sweden,” “Was charged before interrogation,” “Spy.”
These are some examples of the 28 internet searches Payam Kia made shortly before he was arrested in November 2021, according to Stockholm-based daily newspaper The evening paper.
Two months earlier, his older brother Peyman, a former employee of Swedish Armed Forces and security services, had been arrested on charges of aggravated espionage. The two brothers, who lived together in Uppsala, about an hour north of Stockholm, had long been suspected of sharing classified information. But it wasn’t until November 11 that prosecutors filed charges against them, after gathering enough evidence to support what has been described as Sweden’s biggest spy case since the end of the Cold War.
The trial against the brothers was to begin on Thursday behind closed doors at the Stockholm district court; and while prosecutors believe financial gain was the motive, the case is attracting extra attention in and outside of Sweden for reasons that go far beyond individual greed.
In the last decade, due to increasing geopolitical tensions, the threat of spies has increased across Europe. According to a study published by Total Defense Research Institute in May, the most active spies are in Northern Europe and the Baltics and work in the vast majority on behalf of Russia. Undoubtedly, the start of the war in Ukraine has increased the efforts and activity of those working undercover on both sides.
Brothers in place
On Tuesday, Swedish special forces arrested two people in their 60s in a residential area in Stockholm, suspected of having conducted harmful illegal intelligence activities for 10 years.
For Peyman and Payam Kia, it is not clear how, as prosecutors allege, they might have gotten caught up in Moscow’s web. Originally from Iran, the Kia brothers came to Sweden as young children and received Swedish citizenship in 1994. Peyman, 42, began his career in the civil service as a customs crime investigator, before moving on to the Security Police and then to the Military Intelligence and Security Service, where he also worked at the top-secret Office for Special Intelligence, an agency that, among other things, works with its own agents abroad and recruits spies outside Sweden’s borders.
Payam, seven years younger, was not as successful. He started studying at the police academy, dropped out after one semester, but somehow also ended up working at the Security Police for a short period.
Both are now accused of spying for Moscow between September 2011 and September 2021. Peyman and Payam Kia, who could each face life in prison, deny the charges.
According to prosecutors, the brothers worked on behalf of the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service: Peyman collected classified information through his work in the Armed Forces and the Security Service, while Payam was in charge of planning the operation with their liaison contacts and managing the financial compensation.
Baltic angle
With its geographic location, which shares the coastline of the Baltic Sea, Sweden is particularly vulnerable: The Security Police estimates that a third of the staff at Russian embassies are usually intelligence officerwhich means that around 10-15 people at the Russian Embassy in Stockholm are believed to be actively spying.
Russian espionage in Sweden is not limited to counterespionage, but also includes industrial espionage: Last year, a 47-year-old man was sentenced to three years in prison for spying for Russia by selling secret information from truck manufacturer Scania.
This is not a new phenomenon in itself, and the general mood in the Nordics towards Russia has traditionally always been distrust, even fear. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and Sweden’s successor NATO enforcement has deepened tensions, a threat authorities take very seriously.
Swedish identity
Sweden, which has not experienced a war on its territory for over 200 years, has been forced to abandon the alliance policy that had previously been the basis of its foreign policy for decades.
In a country that sees itself as a global model of humanitarian leadership, the awakening to the reality of a dangerous world order marks the end of Swedish exceptionalism.
As Gunilla Herolf, senior associate research fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute, told The Guardian recently: “We have maintained a doctrine for 200 years. It’s a big deal. It means something to people. It becomes a question of identity.”
Meanwhile, as the country reflects on the changes in the air, the counterintelligence war quietly continues.
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