Foreign ministry double agent fooled Soviet spies
A former high-ranking official at the Swedish foreign ministry has revealed how for 13 years he fed false information to the KGB and other communist security agencies.
In an interview with business daily Dagens Industri, Dag Klackenberg spoke out for the first time about his role as a double agent in the Cold War years from 1975 to 1988.
Klackenberg, who currently heads the Swedish Trade Federation, said the agents he met believed he was on their side, whereas in fact he was working on behalf of the Swedish Security Service, Säpo, to reveal the identities of Warsaw Pact spies.
"To begin with we would meet in my apartment in Solna or in pubs around Stockholm.
"But as I climbed higher in the ranks on both sides there was more room for maneuver and in the end communication was possible without personal meetings," he told Dagens Industri.
With Klackenberg's help, Swedish authorities were eventually able to expel a number of foreign diplomats, he said.
Klackenberg also claims that he almost took over the helm at Säpo in the early 1990s at a time when Carl Bildt was Sweden's prime minister. But the opposition, led by the Social Democrats, blocked the move.
"I think it was Thage G Peterson, who became defence minister after the change of government in 1994, that said no," Klackenberg told Dagens Industri.
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In an interview with business daily Dagens Industri, Dag Klackenberg spoke out for the first time about his role as a double agent in the Cold War years from 1975 to 1988.
Klackenberg, who currently heads the Swedish Trade Federation, said the agents he met believed he was on their side, whereas in fact he was working on behalf of the Swedish Security Service, Säpo, to reveal the identities of Warsaw Pact spies.
"To begin with we would meet in my apartment in Solna or in pubs around Stockholm.
"But as I climbed higher in the ranks on both sides there was more room for maneuver and in the end communication was possible without personal meetings," he told Dagens Industri.
With Klackenberg's help, Swedish authorities were eventually able to expel a number of foreign diplomats, he said.
Klackenberg also claims that he almost took over the helm at Säpo in the early 1990s at a time when Carl Bildt was Sweden's prime minister. But the opposition, led by the Social Democrats, blocked the move.
"I think it was Thage G Peterson, who became defence minister after the change of government in 1994, that said no," Klackenberg told Dagens Industri.
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