Swedish Court Acquits Russian-Born Businessman Of Spying For Moscow

Police secures the area around the house where Sergei Skvortsov was arrested on suspicion of espionage in November 2022.

A Russian-born Swedish businessman was acquitted of collecting information for Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU, for almost a decade. Sergei Skvortsov had been accused of “gross illegal intelligence activities against Sweden and against a foreign power,” namely the United States. The Stockholm District Court said Skvortsov had largely acted in the way prosecutors alleged and that advanced technology was acquired and delivered to Russia. But the court said “that the business [was] only intended for the procurement of technology from the West and not aimed at obtaining information concerning Sweden or the United States that may constitute espionage.”