Daniel Stenling, head of counterintelligence at the Swedish Security Service, and the head of the Military Intelligence and Security Service MUST's security office held an hour-long presentation in the Riksdag's Defense Committee on Thursday.
The meeting was a consequence of SVT's and Uppdrag granskning's revelations about Russian espionage in Sweden. Defense Committee chairman Peter Hultqvist (S) said that the draw confirmed the picture of "Russia's war planning on Swedish territory."
"We have discussed the threats that exist against Sweden in terms of espionage, sabotage and security in general, but also various types of antagonism and infiltration in Swedish society," says Peter Hultqvist.
Säpo: "Affects Sweden"
Only yesterday, NATO's intelligence chief David Cattler warned of an increased risk of attacks on infrastructure in Europe.
"There is always an activity going on, of course, and that pattern includes various antagonistic conditions, such as preparation such as undermining, disinformation and creating contradictions in a society, and there are also sabotage preparations on that list.
Counterintelligence chief Daniel Stenling inculcated the seriousness of the situation after the meeting and said:
"The security situation in Sweden's immediate vicinity has deteriorated and this is something we must follow very closely. We must follow the conflict in Ukraine, how it develops because it affects Sweden to the highest degree. And this is a time when you need to be extra vigilant about the fact that we have a deteriorating security situation. We have war in Europe and we must all bear that in mind.
According to the Swedish Security Service, the increasing Russian intelligence gathering is about Russia preparing for an even deeper conflict with the West.
"This gathering of information is about the fact that Russia needs to prepare for the fact that this conflict that it feels it has with the West could get worse and these are things that we have to be extra careful about.