This is about a company that manufactures registration plates and has won a procurement contract with the Transport Agency. The company is a subsidiary of the German company Tönnjes.
However, companies within Tönnjes have, according to the newspaper, ties to the Russian government leadership. Tönnjes' parent company owns 100 percent of the subsidiary, which has won the Transport Agency's procurement contract. They are, in turn, majority owners of the Russian company Znak, which manufactures registration plates.
Znak's founder and major owner, politician Valerij Andrejevitj Ponomarjov, is a member of the Federal Council, the Russian upper house. Since 2022, Valerij Andrejevitj Ponomarjov has been subject to sanctions from the West and is on the EU's sanctions list, as he supports the war in Ukraine.
If the deal goes through, sensitive information about vehicles may end up with the Russian intelligence service, according to defense experts who have spoken to DN.
The Russian intelligence service may gain access to important data on all vehicles in Sweden. The vehicle register contains sensitive information that can be used by the total defense for war-placing critical vehicles, says Per Skoglund, researcher in logistics and head of department at the Defense University, to DN.
The Transport Agency's current supplier has filed an appeal against the award decision with the Administrative Court.
