They tried to take the suspects by surprise, so that there was no place for the destruction of compromising evidence. In November 2022, before setting foot in the suburbs east of Stockholm, SWAT officers descended from helicopters onto the balconies of a white villa, smashed the windows and arrested the couple. The neighbors couldn’t believe their neighbors had been behaving like this for years. Russian spies.

A Russian couple immigrated to Sweden in the late 90s. It is estimated that they lay dormant for decades until they received Swedish citizenship and were activated by the authorities. Russian secret services. They have set up various companies specialized in the import and export of electronic components. Swedish intelligence suspects that their spying began in July 2014.

Before their role was revealed, another Russian agent was in Norway in October 2022, posing as a Brazilian investigator. Representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, then attempted to parse these arrests, citing “anti-Russian hysteria in the West” and “obsession” with spy stories. But other similar revelations followed. Recently, the Polish authorities dismantled a spy network that allegedly acted on behalf of Russia. According to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Poland, Mariusz Kaminsky, nine defendants were preparing acts of sabotage, and their actions were allegedly related to the war in Ukraine.

This was announced last Thursday Greek EYP and his secret action Russian Irena S. She has lived in Greece since at least 2018 under the assumed name “Maria Tsalla”, according to government officials. It was based in Pagrati and had a knitwear shop on Arrianou street.

Secret action of Irena S. in Pagrati and Alexander in Vienna.

In January, she left Athens, threw away all her personal belongings and left for Russia. Her husband also returned there, who lived in Brazil under the assumed name of Daniel Campos. EYP appears to have been briefed on her role following her escape.

On December 19, 2022, Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner publicly congratulated his country’s intelligence services on what he called “the identification of a Russian spy.” In a report from the Austrian authorities, Alexander is mentioned as a Greek of Russian origin, the son of a former Russian agent who served under diplomatic cover in Germany and Austria.

A few months ago, in March 2022, Alexander’s house was searched by 15 armed fighters of the Austrian anti-terrorist unit “Cobra”. During the raid, anti-surveillance equipment, bed bug and hidden camera detectors, body armor, mobile phones, laptops and tablets were seized. In total, they looked at ten million electronic files, while he was allegedly interrogated for eight hours. There were suspicions that he was passing information to Moscow about Austrian foreign policy, security issues, and the climate in Europe during the preparations for a military invasion of Ukraine.

Although he introduced himself as Greek, it is not clear how he acquired citizenship. His parents, like his wife, are citizens of Russia. Alexandros holds a Greek passport and identity card that were reportedly issued two decades ago. He speaks fluent German, relatively good Greek, and poor English.