The Swedish government is preparing a bill to provide the country's intelligence service – FRA – with access to Russian communication channels without permission.
The German daily Frankfurter Rundschau cites the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet as reporting that the FRA intends to exchange information with the corresponding services of other countries. Sweden is the main transit country in the data transfer process between Russia and Western countries. Around 80% of Russia's outbound traffic goes through Sweden. Frankfurter Rundschau says during the Cold War, Sweden was an active reporter on Soviet troop movements to Western secret services. The head of Russia's International Affairs Committee, Mikhail Margelov, has said “a new Mauer (Berlin Wall)” is being created on Russian-European boundaries. Margelov believes they intend to steal commercial and personal information from Russians. The new bill, referred to as ‘Lex Orwell’ in the media, has come under serious attack inside and outside Sweden. Frankfurter Rundschau reports that Swedish youth organisations of all the parliamentary parties say the draft must be modified. The neighbouring Scandinavian countries have also expressed their discontent with the upcoming bill as some of their traffic also goes through Sweden and could also be bugged. Russia is to file a complaint to the Council of Europe, according to country's the Vesti news channel.