Swedish military intelligence said on Monday that the security situation in the Nordic countries and Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “the most serious” since the early 1980s. cold war era.
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“The security risks to Sweden have increased and the threats to Sweden have become broader and more complex,” the Swedish armed forces said in a statement.
This assessment was presented in the annual security report of the Swedish Military Security and Intelligence Service (MUST).
“Today we have a situation of conflict and confrontation between Russia and the West, which is likely to worsen,” underlined the director of military intelligence and security services Lena Hallin, in the preamble to the report.
According to her, the security situation in Europe and in the region bordering Sweden is currently “the most serious at least since the beginning of the 1980s”.
Sweden along with neighboring Finland have broken with the policy of military non-alignment to which they have been faithful for decades, and in May 2022 declared themselves candidates for NATO membership following the offensive Russian in Ukraine.
Sweden’s candidacy has come up against opposition from Turkey, which accuses the Scandinavian country of harboring Kurdish militants whom it describes as “terrorists”, in particular those of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Accession protocols for new NATO members must be ratified by all 30 members of the organization. Only Turkey and Hungary have not yet had the agreement for the accession of the two Nordic countries ratified by their parliament.
In its analysis, the MUST considered that the situation was “more secure” for Sweden since the submission of its application for NATO membership, pointing out that Stockholm had received bilateral assurances concerning the security of several countries in the world. waiting for membership.
MUST at the same time warned of an increased threat to Sweden posed by the activities of the Russian intelligence services.
These activities include intelligence gathering by Russian spy services regarding Sweden’s future role in NATO, and also Russia’s attempts to circumvent sanctions imposed on it by Western countries, it said. Mrs Hallin.
The “intelligence threat” relates to both intelligence gathering by spies and cyberattacks or the use of other technologies.
Both Russia and China have “the capacity to conduct complex operations in an attempt to influence Sweden’s decisions in the political and economic fields”, she stressed.