The Russian authorities have assured Thursday that they have not yet received any notification about the arrest in Sweden of two alleged spies, whose nationality Stockholm did not confirm.
«The Russian side has not received any official information from the Swedish authorities on this issue,» said the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, thus suggesting that the pair of detainees is not Russian.
The Russian representative recalled that the Stockholm police did not confirm any further information about the detainees, noting their identity, nationality and the state for which they were allegedly spying, according to TASS news agency.
In this context, Zakharova referred to publications in the Swedish media suggesting that the detained couple might be Russian. «We consider the current publications (…) as part of the general anti-Russian hysteria in the West,» she reproached.
Swedish authorities reported on Tuesday that police in the capital had arrested one suspected of having carried out «serious illegal intelligence activities against Sweden», and that the other detainee had «aided and abetted this».
