INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Swedish prosecutors on Thursday urged a prison sentence of up to five years for a Russian-Swedish citizen accused of passing Western
technology to Russia's military.Sergei Skvortsov, who was arrested in a dawn raid on his suburban Stockholm home in November 2022, has
lived in Sweden since the 1990s, running import-export companies.The 60-year-old is charged with two counts of "unlawful intelligence
vast Russian organization built to acquire technology off-limits to Moscow because of international sanctions.According to experts quoted in
Swedish media, the technology was mainly electronic devices that can be used, among other things, in nuclear weapons research.Much of the
three-week trial has been held behind closed doors on national security grounds."He is a procurement agent for the Russian military complex
and its intelligence unit GRU," prosecutor Henrik Olin told the Stockholm district court in his final arguments."Russia has a need for
There is a Russian procurement system, and this system is run by the intelligence services..
Skvortsov and his two companies are a part of this system," Olin said.Skvortsov, clad in a dark suit for Thursday's court appearance, has
maintained he is innocent.He says he is a legitimate businessman who sought the proper Swedish authorizations for his exports.But Olin said
that the authorizations were designed to "provide a veil of legitimacy" and that Skvortsov used false names of business partners, omitted
information about the types of products he exported and provided false information about their end users.Olin asked the court to hand down a
sentence of between four-and-a-half and five years.Sweden's charge of "unlawful intelligence activities" is a notch lower than
espionage.Skvortsov's lawyer Ulrika Borg called for her client's acquittal, arguing that the prosecution had failed to provide evidence
that Skvortsov was a part of Russia's procurement system."He has testified that he is a businessman with a lot of contacts in many areas,
ranging from vegetables to Roscosmos," she said, referring to Russia's space agency."Among all of these, the prosecution has chosen to
pick out people that it claims are part of or connected to Russian intelligence, just because they may have lived on the same street," Borg
said.Olin previously told AFP the electronic devices were mainly from the United States.He said that United States authorities
authorities believe Skvortsov took over that role from those individuals.A US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) official testified
behind closed doors during the Stockholm trial, alongside officials from the Swedish intelligence services.Skvortsov and his wife were
arrested in a raid on their home in the Stockholm suburb of Nacka, when two Black Hawk helicopters and an elite commando force swooped down
on their house.His wife was later released and allegations against her dismissed.The verdict is to be announced on Oct
