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Sergei Skvortsov and Elena Koulkova seemed to have a normal life. They have lived in a white-fronted house in Saltsjö Bu, on the outskirts of Stockholm, since 2015. “They were just like everyone else in the area, talking about gardening and always saying hello.” informed — told the couple’s neighbor to the British newspaper The Times. Last Tuesday, at 6 am, everything changed.
That morning, two helicopters fly over the house where the couple lived. From there, an elite detachment of the Swedish army entered through the window, and police cars parked near the house. This was all part of a second operation detailed later by Stefan Hektor, director of the Swedish police, who explained that the goal was to prevent any evidence from being destroyed, either “down the toilet” or “by destroying computers.”
The “friendly couple” were arrested after this very difficult police operation. It is based on the decision of the Swedish Prosecutor General’s Office, which accused Sergei Skvortsov of carrying out “serious illegal espionage activities” against Sweden and a foreign state over the past 10 years. The woman was his accomplice.
The defendants denied the accusations of Swedish justice, but Sergei Skvortsov remained in custody, and the woman paid bail and was released. Meanwhile, Swedish prosecutor Henrik Ohlin went into more detail about the allegations that the Swedish police were assisted by the FBI, according to which the couple also collected information from the services that compromised US security.
To do this, the couple will acquire illegal technology from the Russian military industry that will help them complete the mission. Sweden also managed to unravel Sergei Skvortsov’s ties to the Russian intelligence services, which will be in contact over the past few years. Nonetheless, Swedish authorities only started tracking the couple in 2016when the company they owned ran into economic problems.
The Russian couple hails from Perm near the Ural Mountains. Sergei Skvortsov, who was born in 1963, studied at the Moscow Engineering Institute, and his wife, a year younger, also received her higher education in the Russian capital, but already at the State University of Computational Mathematics. They got married in 1994 and have a son who also lives in Stockholm. Elena Kolkova has another daughter from other relationships.
They moved to Sweden in the late 1990s. Sergei Skvortsov worked for several Swedish technology companies. Although they lived in Sweden, the couple bought an apartment in Moscow, in an area where several Russian secret agents usually live. One of your neighbors was Sergey Fedotov — accused of poisoning former spy Sergei Skripal four years ago in London. In 2015, the house was named after the daughter of Elena Koulkova.
Swedish printing house, quoted Le Monde indicates that Elena Kolkova received Swedish citizenship in January 2010. Her husband received the same two and a half years later.
The opening of this case comes at a time when relations between Russia and Sweden are going through a difficult moment. After the invasion of Ukraine, Stockholm wanted to join NATO, which angered the Kremlin. The scandal is seen as another point of tension between the two countries.
In turn, the press secretary of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, has already reacted to this case, condemning, in her words, “the anti-Russian hysteria of the West.”🇧🇷 “This is a Russophobic campaign that has become an obsession with espionage in some countries.“, he accused.
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