A Russian intelligence operation infiltrated Europe's most secretive spy agency
Peyman Kia, a Swedish intelligence officer, spied for Russia for ten years. He will have caused untold damage to one of Europe's most admired intelligence communities.
On 19 January a Stockholm court announced that Peyman Kia, a former Swedish intelligence officer, had been sentenced to life imprisonment for “aggravated espionage”, along with his younger brother who got 10 years. Both were found to have spied for Russia’s GRU, the feared military intelligence service, for more than a decade. The impact of their spying on Sweden’s national security appears immense.
Until its recent decision to join NATO, Sweden was known for its neutrality. But during the Cold War, it was in practice an active member of the western intelligence alliance. In 1954 it signed a top secret treaty with the Five Eyes intelligence alliance (US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand). Documents leaked by Edward Snowden show that this co-operation was maintained over the years, with a particular focus on Russia where Sweden had access to a “unique collection of Russian high-priority targets”. As the court sentencing Kia noted, “he has acquired, forwarded and disclosed … information to Russia, which constitutes the main threat to Sweden’s security.”
For those unfamiliar with Swedish history, this rivalry runs deep: from the mid-sixteenth century to the early years of the eighteenth century, Sweden, at that time an imperial power, and Russia, a rising empire, fought a series of lengthy wars for control of much of the Baltic Sea. These wars ended with Russia establishing its access to the Baltic and with Sweden much diminished. For the Swedish military, the sense that Russia is a constant threat, is deeply embedded. A Swedish special forces veteran once told me “we haven’t forgotten about Poltava”, a decisive battle fought in central Ukraine in 1709, where Russia under Peter the Great destroyed Sweden’s army. Sweden joining NATO may not be quite the rupture it’s been portrayed as.
So the realisation that Swedish citizens had passed high-level intelligence to Russia for over ten years will have come as a particular shock. For Russia, this would have been a major coup. In the KGB’s Moscow headquarters at the famous Lubyanka, Scandinavian countries, with their close relationships with the US and UK, are seen as primary targets. Indeed, the KGB historically had a single department for spying on both Scandinavia and the UK, reflecting this priority.
The spy who came in from the cold store
At the time of his arrest, Peyman Kia was working in the innocuous-sounding Swedish Food Agency, but his access to Sweden’s national security state was long established. Peyman Kia was born in Iran and came to Sweden as a child. After a degree at the elite Uppsala university, in 2007 he joined SÄPO, Sweden’s equivalent to MI5, before joining the military intelligence service in 2011. In the same year he and his brother began to spy for the GRU.
Kia left the intelligence world in 2015, becoming a senior manager at the Food Agency where was seen as “overqualified”. It seems likely that he might have done this to reduce the suspicion on him. For, according to Swedish media reports, SÄPO had “suspected for years that there was a mole at the heart of the intelligence service - but they failed to stop the spying.” Even at the food agency, Kia had managed to retain access to reports from the military intelligence service and from SÄPO, many of which were found on his computer. This state of affairs was described as “insane” by a military intelligence source. After years of fruitless investigations, Kia was identified as a suspect in 2017, but would not be arrested until late in 2021, giving him several more years to continue his treachery.
Among the reports that Kia had retained access to was a full personnel list of SÄPO employees, which will have fallen into Russian hands - a devastating blow which will have long-term impacts on Sweden’s security. A complex spy operation to catch Kia involved covert night-time raids on his office in an attempt to generate sufficient evidence to arrest him.
The most secret service of them all
But perhaps the greatest breach of Swedish national security comes from Kia’s work, at some point between 2011 and 2014, at the Kontoret för särskild inhämtning (KSI) - which is roughly the Swedish equivalent to MI6 or CIA. KSI carries out human intelligence operations overseas (presumably including in Russia) but, beyond that, almost nothing is known about it. Whilst MI6 and CIA guard their secrets closely, there is still plenty of basic information about these agencies in the public domain: the name of the Chief of MI6 is disclosed publicly, and its headquarters building is a London landmark. The CIA’s headquarters is so well known that it is signposted off the main road in Langley, Virginia.
By contrast, KSI releases no information to the public. At all. No staff member’s name is known, even that of its boss. Its location is a secret. It is said that even Sweden’s closest allies know almost nothing about the organisation and are not permitted to visit its offices. This might appear contradictory in a country that is seen as a beacon of transparency and open government. But it is perhaps for that very reason that the KSI is so secretive - in modern Swedish culture the idea of espionage may seem distasteful to some, so the government decides to make it effectively invisible. For Kia, a former staff member of this most secret service, to have sold KSI’s assets to the GRU, will be a devastating blow to what is likely to be a small, tightly-knit agency.
A family operation
Whilst Peyman Kia, as an intelligence professional, gathered the material, it appears that his younger brother Payam managed the interface with their GRU handlers. Payam’s employment history is less clear, although it is reported that he had also worked at SÄPO at some point. The few details that have emerged about the case point to a classic spy operation, including a secret camera disguised as a car key and dead drops in a public toilet in Uppsala where USB sticks containing secret files were handed over to the GRU.
It is tempting to speculate as to the brothers’ motivation. As first-generation immigrants to Sweden, did they feel a lack of belonging in their adopted land? The country’s politics have become increasingly polarised with the Sweden Democrats now one of the largest political parties, espousing an anti-immigration, white nationalist agenda. George Blake, who spied for the KGB whilst an officer in Britain’s MI6, might be an instructive comparison. Born into a Dutch-Egyptian Jewish family, Blake was an outsider in Britain, a country he adopted as a young adult. In later life he argued, “to betray, you first have to belong. I never belonged.” Perhaps the Kia brothers did not feel accepted in Sweden? This to attempt to understand, not to excuse either case. Blake may have caused the deaths of dozens of those he betrayed to the Russians. It’s impossible to know whether the same will have been the case for the Peyman and Payam, but it’s certainly likely.
There may be a simpler reason for their treachery: the brothers are reported to have received at least $400,000 from the GRU in addition to gold. Which might not seem a worthwhile reward for a life sentence. But the impact on Sweden’s intelligence agencies will be felt for decades to come.
Excellent and insightful article.