Sweden conducts spy flights over Russia amidst heightened tensions
August 13, 2015 2 Comments
Swedish Air Force spy planes conducted reconnaissance flights over Russia on Wednesday —and there was nothing the Kremlin could do about it. The flights were part of the 1992 Treaty on Open Skies, an international agreement designed to build trust among former Cold War rivals. The treaty was first proposed by the United States in 1990, with the intention of covering all member-states of the Warsaw Pact and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. When it was eventually signed, on March 24, 1992, it was ratified by 23 countries, including the US and Russia. An additional 11 states have joined the treaty at various times since, with Sweden joining in 2002. On Wednesday, Swedish reconnaissance airplanes conducted flights over a number of Russian military installations as part of the treaty, as they do every year during predetermined times.
This year, however, the stakes are different, since relations between Stockholm and Moscow have deteriorated dramatically. The Scandinavian country has issued numerous formal complaints against what it says were illegal infiltrations of its airspace by Russian military jets since 2014. Carl Bildt, Sweden’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, said earlier this year that some of these alleged airspace infiltrations represented “the most serious aerial incursions by the Russians in almost 10 years”. In October of last year, Swedish authorities shut down airspace over Stockholm while searching for a misery foreign vessel seen off the coast of the Swedish capital, said to be a Russian spy submarine. The mystery vessel was never detected, but some Swedish media sites claimed that its mission had been to either “pick up or drop off a Russian spy” without alerting Swedish authorities. In March of this year, the Swedish Security Service, known as SAPO, said that Russia was Sweden’s greatest short-term threat, adding that nearly a third of all Russian diplomats stationed in Sweden were in fact intelligence officers.
Swedish media quoted Swedish Armed Forces Colonel Carol Paraniak, who said that Russia was and would always remain an intelligence target for Sweden. This is especially true today, as the “security and political situation […] has changed a lot compared to last year. Tensions have increased dramatically”, said Paraniak.
► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 13 August 2015 | Permalink
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Rwandan spies target government critics abroad: Canadian report
August 14, 2015 by Joseph Fitsanakis Leave a comment
The report claims that there is “a well- documented pattern of repression of Rwandan government critics, both inside and outside Rwanda”, and says there is ample evidence of involvement by Rwandan spies in threats, attacks and even killings of opposition activists living abroad. The document cites the case of Patrick Karegeya, a leading member of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), an armed Tutsi rebel group that fought to end the genocide inflicted upon the Tutsis by their rival Hutus in the 1990s. Karegeya, who used to be director general of External Intelligence in the RPA, fell out with Rwanda’s President, Paul Kagame, in 2004. In January 2014, Karegeya was found dead in a hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he had been living in exile.
Also cited in the report is a case in the United Kingdom, where two Rwandan exiles were warned by the police in 2011 that there were “threats to their [personal] safety emanating from the Rwandan government”. There was also evidence of Rwandan intelligence activity targeting opposition figures in Canada, said the report. In one recent case, the Rwandan government had attempted to “organize indoctrination training” aimed at Canadian youths of Rwandan heritage, but had to drop its plan following an investigation by CSIS. IntelNews regulars might also remember the case of Evode Mudaheranwa, a Rwandan diplomat who was expelled by the government of Sweden in 2012 for allegedly operating under orders by the Kagame government to silence its critics abroad.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 14 August 2015 | Permalink
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Canada, Canada Border Services Agency, CBSA National Security Screening Division, CSIS (Canada), immigration intelligence, lawsuits, News, Paul Kagame, Rwanda, Rwandan Patriotic Front