Sawt Falasteen - Swedish verdict due in case against alleged Russian agent

Sergei Skvortsov, a 60-year-old dual national who has lived in Sweden since the 1990s running import-export companies, was arrested in a spectacular dawn raid on his Stockholm home in November 2022.

He is accused of conducting "unlawful intelligence activities" for a decade against Sweden and the United States until his arrest.

He was held in detention for almost a year until the Stockholm district court ordered him released on October 9, following the end of his trial.

It said there was "no longer reason to keep the defendant in custody."

Skvortsov's lawyer Ulrika Borg told AFP at the time that the move should not be interpreted as a sign the court would find him innocent.

"It is impossible to predict whether the court is going to acquit him," she said.

Prosecutors have claimed Skvortsov was a "procurement agent" for a vast Russian organisation acquiring technology off-limits to Moscow due to sanctions.

According to experts quoted in the Swedish media, the equipment was mainly electronic devices that can be used in nuclear weapons research.

"He is a procurement agent for the Russian military complex and its intelligence unit GRU," prosecutor Henrik Olin told the Stockholm district court in his final arguments in late September.

"Russia has a need for electronic technology. There is a Russian procurement system, and this system is run by the intelligence services... Skvortsov and his two companies are a part of this system," Olin said.

He said Skvortsov's actions posed "a serious threat" to US and Swedish national security.

Much of the trial was held behind closed doors on national security grounds.

Olin told AFP the implications also reached even further.

"You only have to look at the battlefield in Ukraine to see that there's a real need for this from the Russian military industrial complex," he said.

- Legitimate businessman? -

Skvortsov maintains he is a legitimate businessman who sought the proper Swedish authorisations for his exports.

But Olin said the authorisations were designed to "provide a veil of legitimacy" and that Skvortsov used false names of business partners, omitted information about the products he exported and provided false information about their end users.

Skvortsov's lawyer meanwhile urged the court to acquit her client, arguing that the prosecution had failed to provide evidence that he was a part of Russia's procurement system.

"He has testified that he is a businessman with a lot of contacts in many areas, ranging from vegetables to Roscosmos," she said, referring to Russia's space agency.

"Among all of these, the prosecution has chosen to pick out people that it claims are part of or connected to Russian intelligence, just because they may have lived on the same street," Borg said.

Olin previously told AFP the electronic devices were mainly from the United States.

He said US authorities had prosecuted people in New York in 2016 for providing Russia's "military complex" with electronic devices, and that US authorities believe Skvortsov took over that role from those individuals.

A US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) official testified behind closed doors during the Stockholm trial, alongside Swedish intelligence officials.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in July the Scandinavian country was in "the most serious security situation since World War II", facing parallel threats from both "states and state-like actors".

On Tuesday, he cited Russia as one such threat, noting Moscow "dislikes" Sweden's bid to join NATO and the fact that Stockholm backs Kyiv in the war in Ukraine.

J.AbuShaban--SF-PST