by Victor Lavrinenko
[REGNUM] The Swedish public is nervous - they are being intimidated by the machinations of "Moscow's agents" and are being told that Russian spies are swarming around, representing the advance guard of an impending "invasion".
As a result, the population is increasingly immersed in paranoia - an attack of it can be provoked even by three Russian letters on the body of a car.
The apogee of nervousness and the whipped-up spy mania was the persecution of the Orthodox church in the city of Västerås. According to Swedish politicians and intelligence services, the church has become a "nest of Russian intelligence" and is engaged in "surveillance of the city airport."
EVERY RUSSIAN IS UNDER SUSPICION
In April, Sweden and Finland began preparing a joint plan to evacuate their populations in case of war. Residents of these countries receive daily fresh portions of news about the latest intrigues of "aggressive Russia".
The press and officials are telling the population: the Russians are already here, they are waging a hybrid war! And this is yielding results - according to a recent poll, almost 70% of Swedes are very concerned about the "increased threat" from Russia. And at least three out of ten fear ending up under "Russian occupation".
Many Swedes are now actively thinking about how they can survive if fighting breaks out, says Emelie Ruud, an official with the National Emergency Management Agency.
"According to the latest survey, 43% say they can manage without government assistance for at least a week (after the war begins. - Author's note). And 63% said they plan to improve the preparedness of their home," says Ruud.
Two years ago, an “exposé” article appeared in the Expressen publication, claiming that various equipment intended for radio intelligence has been on the roof of the Russian embassy in Stockholm since Soviet times.
Moreover, sources in the intelligence services told the publication that this equipment can be used to wiretap mobile phones and track encrypted radio communications of the Swedish Security Police (SäPo).
According to the publication, the embassy employs not so much diplomats as spies, and continuous intelligence activities are carried out.
SäPo had previously stated on numerous occasions that Russia was Sweden's biggest security threat, so the revelations about the embassy fell on fertile soil.
Counterintelligence chief Daniel Stenling ominously reported : "What we can say publicly is that they have the technical capability to deliver intelligence equipment to Sweden. Russia is constantly collecting intelligence on Sweden."
As evidence, the reader was shown satellite images, as well as photographs taken from the office of the Expressen publication, which is located right opposite the embassy.
According to Swedish experts, "the equipment that the Russians are trying to hide with roof awnings looks noticeably worn out, but some antennas can still intercept radio communications in the Baltic Sea."
SäPo adds that the Russian diaspora living in Sweden is also allegedly actively used in espionage cases. And now any ethnic Russian in Sweden bears the stamp of these suspicions.
"I'M NOT MYSELF"
The psychological state of the Swedes is demonstrated, for example, by the stupidest incident that occurred in November last year in Gothenburg. There, near the regional office of the state tax agency, a car with the Russian letters "FSB" on the hood was parked. Its appearance caused real panic.
"He stood there for at least an hour. Almost no one was working - everyone was crowded at the windows and looking at the car. Some were just silent, others were laughing. Everyone wanted to run away somewhere. I went home, because no one knows what can happen," complained one of the tax officers.
The police, who were raised to their feet, quickly conducted an inspection and found out that the car with the "creepy" inscription was local. But the reason why Russian letters were painted on the car could not be found out. Perhaps its owner just decided to joke. Well, like some of our "comedians" put up "FBI" number plates.
Another telling example: a few months ago, a sixty-year-old man was fired from the IT department of the state tax agency after ten years of work there. The specialist’s “guilt” was that he had been married for 26 years to an ethnic Russian woman of Moldovan origin. Because of this, the Security Police considered him “vulnerable to Russian influence.”
Indeed, the taxman's wife once held Russian citizenship, but in 2011 she renounced it in favor of Swedish citizenship. SäPo considered this "IT specialist" suspicious also on the grounds that he had once visited Russia - although the last time he was there was fourteen years ago.
His wife has not visited the Russian Federation for more than five years, but this did not help. Nor did the fact that the woman openly criticizes Russia on the Internet help the family.
The elderly computer specialist was called in for a biased interview, after which they decided to get rid of him. "When I was applying for the job, I myself raised the issue of my Russian wife. Then I was told that there was no problem. I am completely out of my mind... I cannot understand why this happened to me," the dismissed Swede bitterly complains.
But the most eloquent and blatant example of Swedish spy mania is, oddly enough, connected to the sacred sphere. Last year, an Orthodox church built in 2019–22 in the Swedish city of Västerås (about 80 km west of Stockholm) became the object of suspicion.
This small wooden church belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church and was consecrated in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. The ROC explained the need for its construction by the demand for the Orthodox faith among the residents of Westeros: not only emigrants from Russia need Russian Orthodox Church churches, but also Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Moldovans living there.
There are currently about ten parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in Sweden, uniting approximately 1,200 active parishioners. The community in Västerås is not very large, but people come there for services from other cities, including Stockholm, where there is no large Orthodox church.
In the current times, not a single parish of the Russian Orthodox Church can feel at ease - the shadow of suspicion of espionage can fall on anyone. So the peaceful life of the Westerosi temple did not last very long.
"PROXIMITY TO THE AIRPORT"
The Security Police suspected that this church was allegedly a "stronghold" for spies collecting information about the industrial and transport infrastructure of Sweden and about the exercises of the local army. Swedish "security officers" claim that Västerås may be of interest to Russian intelligence because industrial enterprises of ABB, Bombardier, Westinghouse Atom, Peab, ICA Handlarnas are located there.
"When the Swedish Defence Forces conduct exercises at or near Västerås Airport, as they did in June (2024 – Ed.), they are likely under surveillance from the church," warned Markus Göransson, a researcher at the Swedish Defence University who specialises in "Russian hybrid warfare".
That is, in this case, the principle of “highly likely” (“we don’t know for sure, but it’s very likely”), which is common in such cases, was applied.
Indeed, when investigating the situation with the church in Westeros, the Security Police found no direct evidence of "espionage" by priests, expressing only "suspicion". However, because of these very suspicions, the state agency for supporting religious communities deprived the church of the subsidies it was entitled to by law.
The Russian Ambassador to Stockholm, Sergei Belyaev, commenting on the rumors spreading around the church, recalled that at one time the authorities of Westeros themselves proposed this very site for the construction of the church, although initially the representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church did not like it.
In April 2025, the Westeros City Council, at the instigation of the government, proposed to “resolve the issue” with the local Orthodox church in a radical way – by forcibly buying out the land on which the building was built.
In support of this idea of a local policy, they point out that the church is located just three hundred meters from the territory of the city airport. Also nearby are local water treatment facilities, which, according to the Swedes, are also of interest to the Russians, who are probably already thinking about sending their saboteurs there.
In any case, the Westerosi leadership shares Marcus Göransson's opinion that the temple priests are most likely monitoring the air harbor on behalf of Russian intelligence.
"We must put the security of Västerås first. The main problem is the church's proximity to the airport and its high tower, which makes eavesdropping easier," said Elisabeth Unell, a representative of Sweden's Moderate Party, which runs the country's government.
The chairman of the municipal council, Staffan Jansson, has promised to hold a meeting in May to discuss the forced expropriation of the land. If the decision is positive, it will be submitted to the Swedish government for approval.
Thus, it is very likely that the Orthodox church in Westeros will soon cease to exist in its previous location. And it is still a big question whether it will be allowed to be reborn in its former place.
In general, it can be stated that in Sweden, albeit in a more sluggish form, the same processes are taking place as in the Baltics, where local authorities have set the task of completely clearing their territories of the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Swedes are also making great strides towards this, and the spy mania raging in the country provides justification for cracking down on an objectionable religious organization.