The Stockholm Chamber of Commerce in 2011 ruled that Russia needed to compensate German businessman Franz Sedelmayer for the nationalization of his company in Russia in 1992, and set it sights at a multistorey building in Stockholm's Lidingö suburb that houses the Russian trade mission to Sweden.
In February, the Swedish government agency for debt collection, Kronofogden, put the 2,800-square-metre building up for sale on its website for $3.2 million, which sparked Russia to state that Sweden was acting in violation of diplomatic immunity.
Viktor Khrekov, spokesman for the Office for Presidential Affairs, said that the Russian diplomats planned to stay in the building.
"Any attempt to enter illegally… will be immediately prevented," Khrekov told Russian newswire Interfax in February
On Thursday it emerged that the sale will not go ahead. In an SMS to the TT news agency, new owner Billy Üney explained that the bank that had promised to lend him money to buy the building had pulled out. He did not specify why.
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