Sweden’s security service has detained a Russian citizen at the request of the United States on suspicion of violating U.S. sanctions, a spokesperson told broadcaster TV4.
The Swedish Security Service (SaPo) arrested the man, whose identity has not been disclosed, in late December under an international warrant, spokesperson Jonathan Svensson told TV4.
“The case concerns an international arrest warrant. As the security service is assisting another country in a criminal investigation, we cannot go into any details,” Svensson said.
The man is suspected of circumventing U.S. sanctions between 2022 and 2023, TV4 reported. He was placed on an unspecified international wanted list after a U.S. court issued an arrest warrant in absentia last summer.
The Stockholm District Court has ordered him held in custody pending a decision on extradition, which must be approved by the prosecutor general, the Supreme Court and the Swedish government.
“All such negotiations are conducted through diplomatic channels and via the authorities. An investigation into the extradition is now beginning, and the final decision will be taken by the government,” senior prosecutor Lars Hedvall of Sweden’s National Security Unit was quoted as saying.
The United States has charged several Russian nationals with sanctions violations since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In October 2024, U.S. authorities charged Russian citizens Zhanna Soldatenkova, Ruslan Almetov and Artur Petrov with sanctions evasion, smuggling, fraud and money laundering.
The U.S. Justice Department said they conspired after the invasion to procure U.S. microelectronics for Electrocom, a company that supplies equipment to enterprises in Russia’s military-industrial complex. In total, they shipped microelectronics worth $225,000 to Russia.
In July 2024, a U.S. district court sentenced 52-year-old Maxim Marchenko to three years in prison for smuggling U.S.-origin dual-use and military-grade microelectronics.
Marchenko, who had been living in Hong Kong, sold macro displays worth $1.6 million to Russia, components used in optical sights, night-vision devices and other weapons systems.
In June of that year, Dmitry Timashev, a 58-year-old dual Russian-U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty in a Virginia court to coordinating the shipment of weapons parts to Russia via Kazakhstan.
Read this story in Russian at The Moscow Times' Russian service.
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