Update (0842 EST): Russian Ambassador to Denmark Vladimir Barbin made this statement:
“This is a brazen and shameless provocation by the Danish special services in order to intimidate our compatriots, discredit their public organizations for maintaining contacts with the Motherland,” the diplomat stressed. “The embassy will demand that the Danish authorities immediately release our citizen.”
The Danish Police Intelligence Service (PET) has announced a Russian woman has been arrested in cooperation with the South Zealand and Lolland-Falster Police in connection with enabling a Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) operation within Denmark. The PET comment to DR reads below:
“The case is related to a story in several European media about a Russian state fund and is not related to the recent elections to the European Parliament.”
She is being investigated under section 108 of the Danish Penal Code which covers foreign intelligence activities in the country.
According to DR, the Russian woman is a prominent social figure in Zealand who runs a counseling service for Russian speakers. Her company received hundreds of thousands of Danish Krone (DKK) from the Moscow-based Prav Foundation since 2017. This business relationship is reportedly connected to the Russian SVR and uses those funds to enable propaganda campaigns, pay off sources, and other intelligence activities in Denmark.
This comes as European countries are cracking down harshly on Russian intelligence activities amidst heightened tensions, backdropped with the war in Ukraine.
