Yesterday the investigative television program 'Uppdrag Granskning', by public broadcaster SVT, reported that the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s dumped chemical weapons and radioactive waste in the Swedish economic zone in the Baltic Sea. Something that became known to the Swedish Government in 1999, but was held a secret.
Already in the spring 2009, the National Unit for the Environment received notification about the dumping of nuclear waste, which since then has been investigated.
“We believe that we have reached the stage where we can initiate an investigation, the reason is that we can presume crimes, "said chief prosecutor Mats Palm, to news agency TT.
According to Palm do the information put forward in yesterdays television program confirm several of the data contained in their original notification.
He has now asked to look at the memos on the subject that Swedish the Military Intelligence Service is said to have.
For someone to be prosecuted, a person must be bound as responsible for the dumping.
“This is a very, very difficult investigation. It happened far back in time and you may have to find the position of where the dumping took place, what it exactly is, and if it is leaking and,” says Mats Palm.
Today, one day after the revelation, no one who is politically responsible seems interested to act on the matter.
“For some reason, when the previous government received the information, they decided not to take any action. And I want to know a bit more about what was the basis for that assessment, before I speak on the issue,"says Minister for Foreign Affairs, Carl Bildt.
Jan Eliasson, who was the closest adviser to the former Minister for Foreign Affairs, late Anna Lindh, when she got the information, challenge Bildt and Prime Minister Reinfeldt to immediately get themselves an estimation of their own.
“My simple conclusion is that if there have been three reports, it is well reasonable to pick them up. The government has all authority to do that. Then let the government decide on both the substance and content of the reports and to assess whether something should be done differently. I myself am curious," says Jan Eliasson.
The Social Democrats' foreign affairs spokesperson, Urban Ahlin, writes in a debate article on debate site Newsmill that “there must be a Swedish demand that Russia takes the responsibility and bear the cost”.