Follow us on X
About us

PERIL OF SELF-SABOTAGE ⟩ Swedish Car Plate Production May Shift to German Firm Linked to Sanctioned Russian Official

Sanctioned Russian official Valery Ponomaryov. Photo: Wikipedia
Copy

The Swedish Transport Agency might hand over all vehicle data to Russia on a silver platter.

The agency went to court to secure the future right for a company linked to the Russian elite to produce the country’s vehicle license plates. Experts believe this could risk the Kremlin using sensitive national defense information to its advantage.

Until now, a local company, Scandinavian Motorcenter, has manufactured Sweden’s vehicle license plates, but their contract is ending soon. A spring tender was won by Tönnjes, a German conglomerate’s subsidiary, offering a 40% lower bid than the nearest competitor. Scandinavian Motorcenter contested the Transport Agency’s decision in court, revealing in documents that Tönnjes has direct ties to Russian power corridors, according to Dagens Nyheter.

Tönnjes' parent company fully owns the subsidiary that won the bid. This parent company is also a majority shareholder in the Russian firm Znak, which produces license plates. Znak's founder and major shareholder is Valeri Ponomaryov, a member of the Russian Federation Council, who is under Western sanctions for supporting the war in Ukraine.

Allowing the manufacture of Sweden's vehicle license plates by this firm could mean that a company linked to a Russian politician might gain access to the entire vehicle registry. Per Skoglund, a logistics researcher at the Swedish Defence University, called the Transport Agency’s desire to grant such a risky company the license plate contract bizarre.

"Russia's intelligence service could gain access to crucial information about all vehicles registered in Sweden. The vehicle registry contains sensitive information that total defense could use to deploy vital vehicles in a wartime situation. Society becomes even more vulnerable, and certain forces could sabotage these types of vehicles," he told Dagens Nyheter. This risk includes ambulances and other emergency service vehicles. However, data on military vehicles is not in the registry as they produce their own plates.

Both the Swedish Security Service and military intelligence have warned that Russia is seeking ways to infiltrate Swedish systems and use this information against Sweden. "We know they collect anything that might be relevant. They know more about Sweden than we do," Skoglund added.

Christofer Kärrdahl, a strategist in the Swedish Transport Agency’s vehicle information department, told Dagens Nyheter that the agency was unaware of the Russian connection until it was revealed in the administrative court and declined to comment further while the case is under review.

Copy

Terms

Top