Sweden expels five Russian diplomats for 'breaking Vienna Convention'
Sweden on Tuesday announced that it was expelling five Russian diplomats for "activities not compatible" with their diplomatic status.
Sweden's foreign ministry said "five officials at the Russian Embassy in Sweden are being asked to leave the country" due to unspecified activities that are "not compatible with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations".
"Their activities on our territory have not been in keeping with the status as diplomats," Sweden's foreign minister Tobias Billström told state broadcaster SVT.
The decision comes the day before the second episode of The Shadow War, a joint investigation into Russian espionage in the Nordic countries carried out by SVT, DR, NRK and YLE, the public broadcasters of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
Billström said that Russia's ambassador to Sweden, Viktor Tatarintsev, had been summoned and requested to ensure that the five embassy employees leave Sweden.
Sweden expelled three diplomats in April last year in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
SVT recently passed a list of suspected Russian intelligence officers to Sweden's Säpo security police, who have previously estimated that about one in every three people employed at Russia's embassy works for one of the country's intelligence services.
"These are state employees whose duty is quite simply to gather information and to manipulate countries in the desired direction," Daniel Stenling, the head of the Säpo's counterespionage department, told SVT in an interview.
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Sweden's foreign ministry said "five officials at the Russian Embassy in Sweden are being asked to leave the country" due to unspecified activities that are "not compatible with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations".
"Their activities on our territory have not been in keeping with the status as diplomats," Sweden's foreign minister Tobias Billström told state broadcaster SVT.
The decision comes the day before the second episode of The Shadow War, a joint investigation into Russian espionage in the Nordic countries carried out by SVT, DR, NRK and YLE, the public broadcasters of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
Billström said that Russia's ambassador to Sweden, Viktor Tatarintsev, had been summoned and requested to ensure that the five embassy employees leave Sweden.
Sweden expelled three diplomats in April last year in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
SVT recently passed a list of suspected Russian intelligence officers to Sweden's Säpo security police, who have previously estimated that about one in every three people employed at Russia's embassy works for one of the country's intelligence services.
"These are state employees whose duty is quite simply to gather information and to manipulate countries in the desired direction," Daniel Stenling, the head of the Säpo's counterespionage department, told SVT in an interview.
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