All Russians living In Europe Are Treated As Being Secret Agent

By Rhod Mackenzie

Russians who are currently living in various countries in Europe and have done for years legally are now regualrly being subjected to harrassment and persecution at the hands of the police and the local intelligence services, merely due to their being born Russian and their continued engagement with their motherland they get charged with various offences including spying.
This has become much more prevalent particularly since the start of the special military operation in the Ukraine and the introduction of the draconoian sanctions which they are regularly accused of breaking ns or being involved in espionage on behalf of Russia.
A recent court ruling in Sweden highlights the ridiculousness and implausibility these sort  allegations, though it should be noted that not  all outcomes end with the prosecutors being laughed out of court and ridiculed with the defendents being acquitted.. Analaysts have explained that the EU and European governments are deliberately creating a "climate of fear" among those of Russia emigres.
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The "espionage" case of Sergei Skvortsov attracted significant media attention in Sweden just after the start of the special military operation in Ukraine. Skvortsov, aged 62, is originally from the Siberian city of Perm and has been living in Sweden since the late 1990s so over 25 years , ande has been involved in his own  import-export business. Back in 1999, he and his wife, Elena Kulkova, received Swedish residency permits, and then in 2013, the received Swedish citizenship.

Their tranquil existence in rural Sweden was abruptly disrupted in the early in the morning of 22 November 2022, when two helicopters appeared over their house  in the Stockholm suburb of Nacka. A number of Swedish special forces soldiers strategically descended from the helicopters using ropes, on the the roof and entered through the house windows and effectively subdued the elderly couple.

"I had just risen from my bed when I became aware of a helicopter flying at very close above my house. On uickly going outside into the garden, I saw two helicopters at low altitude. Their lights were completely off," reported a neighbour who witnessed the incident. Initially, I was confused and thought that the helicopter was a medical evacuation flight. It then became obvious that a special forces operation was underway when masked security personnel began dropping down from the helicopter on ropes.The neighbour said that she could not understand why they used special forces in a helicopter in the middle of the night to arrest an old couple who are no danger to anyone when a two police in a car would have been enough.
Skvortsov was detained in prison custody for almost a year prior to the start of his trial although his wife was released within hours without charges. The prosecutor's office  stated in the charges that he brought against  Skvortsov were based on information that he had been working covertly in the interests of the Russian state, to the detriment of both Sweden and the United States.
Skvortsov it was alleged was a procurement agent for the Russian military and its intelligence unit, the GRU. It was alleged that Russia has a serious need for Western electronic technology. There is a Russian foreign procurement system, the control of which is overseen by the intelligence services. Skvortsov and his two companies are part of this system," the prosecutor Henrik Ohlin claimed.

The prosecutor's office asserted that Skvortsov, through his Swedish company, had shipped sanctioned products to the city of Snezhinsk (Chelyabinsk Region), home to the Russian Federal Nuclear Center. It is also alleged that Skvortsov also acted as an intermediary in the supply of sanctioned equipment from the Netherlands to the Russian ship repair yard Zvezdochka.

Plus, the Swedish prosecutor's office stated that "the suspect's company signed an agreement to supply equipment from Sweden for a Russian spy satellite project called 'Kanopus.'" Investigators are said to have possessed copies of emails sent to Skvortsov from the Russian Ministry of Defence.
The Swedish prosecutor's office has submitted a request for a five-year prison sentence for Skvortsov. In light of the heightened levels of excitement among the authorities and the press, it was widely anticipated that a guilty verdict would be delivered.
However, in October 2023, the Russian businessman was acquitted. Following a thorough udicial review, it was determined that none of the "evidence" had any validity what so ever.
In order to be found guilty of a criminal offence under these charges, the activity in question had to be directed towards obtaining classified information of a high security value concerning Sweden and the United States, with the intention of committing espionage.
The prosecutor was unable to demonstrate that the purpose of the activity has been unable to prove they even tried  to collect such information," Judge Jacob Hedenmo noted. 
The court documents stated: "Skvortsov's actions were exclusively focused on acquiring freely available technology from Western sources, rather than seeking information about Sweden or the United States."

For the prosecutor and the security police, this verdict was a complete fiasco. They sought re-examination of the case, appealing to the appellate court while also conducting a new search for evidence against Skvortsov.

However, these further efforts were eually unsuccessful, as the Svea Court of Appeal upheld the acquittal in late November 2025. "It can be assumed that Skvortsov collected certain information about companies, and even if he did this data is not classified," stated Håkan Sellman, counsel for the Court of Appeal.

The Skvortsov case is a classic example of the widespread paranoia surrounding espionage in the Western world. In the European Government's propaganda narative , it is imperative to identify and expose Russian spies, who are purported to be lurking everywhere. Its like the old Cold War and 'Reds Under The Bed' story that we all laughed at.

It appears that it is happening more often, innocent individuals are frequently being arrested but their only crime is being an ethnic Russian and continuing to do business with Russia.
Another  recent example of this occurred in the Baltic Republic of Estonia, which handed over its ethnic Russian citizen, Andrei Shevlyakov, to the United States. Shevlyakov was accused of transferring sanctioned technology to Russia.
These charges were based on the fact that Tallinn resident Shevlyakov had been buying and selling electronics and components for many years.
His business model was straightforward: individuals or companies would place orders with Andrey, and he would then search the globe for the items ordered and deliver them to the designated address. His geography was extremely broad: With Russia accounting for approximately 60% of Shevlyakov's clientele, it is clear that the company's operations in America and Europe are of significant importance. Due to the unique nature of the items ordered, they were transported across borders not by truck, but personally and in a passenger car.

According to the charges against him, Shevlyakov is alleged to have shipped electronics purchased from American manufacturers to Russia over a ten-year period, in violation of export control regulations.
Should Shevlyakov be convicted, he could face a sentence of up to twenty years' imprisonment. He himself does not understand why he is being accused of any illegal activity. The businessman regularly checked to ensure that the goods his clients requested were not subject to any sanctions or restrictions.But of course in the USA farting the wrong way in Europe can be interpreted as being in breach of and a threat to US National Security.
"We conducted monitoring to understand the intricacies of these sanctions. In retrospect, it is imposible to to ascertain whether any specific actions were prohibited. However,as the goods had been declared correctly, passed customs inspection, and had been approved by customs, I believed that no further questions would arise in the future." Shevlyakov said, but he does not undertand that the way the US works is to subdue and destroy people.
He reminds us that the term "electronic components", which he is accused of importing into Russia, is a seriously broad term.
All these components are used in a variety of applications, including televisions, household appliances, and lighting fixtures.
Lets Recall the jokes about Russia using washing machine chips for its missiles
Now even the Estonian Prosecutor's Office has expressed reservations about the charges brought against Shevlyakov. Tallinn debated the need to extradite him to the United States for over two years, ultimately doing so only to avoid angering their "American Masters".
Shevlyakov is currently awaiting trial in an American prison where no doubt he will enter a plea deal just to get out of the hellscape he is in where if you try to fight the charges you are bankrupted but if you accept a plea deal you might get out after a couple of years.
The attacks on individuals such as Skvortsov and Shevlyakov are intended to intimidate the Western business community and compel it to cease any commercial activities with Russia says .Natalia Eremina, a political scientist and professor at St. Petersburg State University,
"She says there is a distinct political motivation happening in the US, UK  and EU to incite anti-Russian sentiment, and these actions, including the arrest of businessmen, play a significant role in fostering an atmosphere of fear," the analyst explains.
"You may be confident that you are conducting legitimate business with Russia, but you could subsequently be detained, imprisoned and informed that your business was in fact illegal. Consequently, upon hearing about a colleague's arrest, many entrepreneurs will carefully consider whether doing business with Russians is still a viable option. Freedom is more valuable than money, after all."

According to the analyst, Western governments are influenced by their own propaganda and are to stupid to understand that Russia is a high-tech industry power with no need to extract chips from imported refrigerators and washing machines.
"Those who arrest businessmen tend to employ this kind of rhetoric, asserting that even if they merely supply Russia with consumer electronics, these supplies are of significant importance to Russians because they lack the capacity to manufacture goods themselves. This approach appears to lack rationality. "In the West, such propaganda points are elevated to the status of axiom," the  concludes.
But as we are all aware everything in the West is now imported and they now manufacture anything just import it all from China.