Russia reportedly expelled a high-ranking Swedish diplomat earlier this year after catching his courier paying $2,000 for a matryoshka doll with film of 23 classified documents tucked inside.
Russian media reports Wednesday said the Swedish courier - a 32-year-old in Russia on a business visa - and his Russian contact were detained Feb. 23 by counterintelligence agents.The Moscow daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta said Federal Security Service agents filmed the exchange, which took place in the St. Petersburg military museum, and arrested both people immediately.
Matryoshka dolls are traditional Russian toys that have several wooden dolls, each one tucked inside the other.
Boris Kostenko, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service, the KGB's main successor agency, confirmed the incident, according to the official Interfax news agency. Kostenko said Russia later forced Sweden to recall a diplomat in charge of espionage operations in the former Soviet Union.
He refused to identify the diplomat.
Both Interfax and Nezavisimaya Gazeta identified the Swede accused of being a courier as Hans Peter Nordstrem.