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DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

Diplomat in Denmark is ‘Russian intelligence officer’

An officer from the Russian intelligence agency GRU has been an official diplomat in Denmark since February this year, according to media reports.

Diplomat in Denmark is 'Russian intelligence officer'
File photo of the Russian Embassy in Copenhagen. Photo:Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix

The individual in question is Vladimir Grekov, who has been listed on the Danish foreign ministry’s diplomatic register since February 17th, newspaper Dagbladet Information reports in partnership with Dutch media NRC.

The report is based on leaked information from Russian registers that shows Grekov’s background as a senior GRU officer and soldier in the VDV special military unit, as well as on confirmation from intelligence sources.

Information reports that it provided its information on Grekov to the Danish foreign ministry and toe Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.

In response, the foreign ministry stated that it remains in Denmark’s interests to retain a diplomatic relationship with Russia and that a Danish attache remains in place in Moscow.

“It is in Danish interests that these connections are kept in place in a turbulent time,” the ministry said according to Information.

Experts who spoke to the newspaper, including Jacob Kaarsbo, a former senior analyst with Danish military intelligence service FE, said that they would consider Grekov a threat to Danish national security.

“I can’t imagine anything other than PET [the police intelligence service, ed.] is aware what a man like this can do and presumably will also attempt to do,” Kaarsbo, now a senior analyst with the thinktank Europa, said to Information.

“That will probably be operative and subversive activities – maybe even hybrid warfare,” he said.

Denmark’s government last year expelled 15 persons employed at the Russian Embassy in Copenhagen. PET stated that they were GRU intelligence officers or from the Russian civil intelligence agency SVR.

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DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

Argentinian president Milei to visit Denmark and meet PM Frederiksen

The President of Argentina Javier Milei is scheduled to arrive in Copenhagen on Sunday for a visit to Denmark during which he will meet Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

Argentinian president Milei to visit Denmark and meet PM Frederiksen

The visit has been announced at an Argentinian government briefing and reported by Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information but is yet to be confirmed by Copenhagen.

Information writes that Milei, according to reports in Argentina, has taken a medical so that he can participate in a demonstration flight in an F-16 fighter aircraft.

A deal was recently agreed between Denmark and Argentina over the sale of 24 F-16s to the South American country, with the final contract for the sale to be signed “at a later date”, according to the March 26th announcement of the agreement.

Milei, a radical libertarian, was sworn in as Argentina’s president in December last year. He has since introduced a series of far-reaching interventions economic interventions including halving the value of the peso and cutting state subsidies on fuel and transport, with the intention of bringing extreme inflation under control.

An admirer of former US president Donald Trump, Milei’s inauguration in December was attended by far-right politicians including Hungarian prime minister Victor Orbán.

Other leaders present included Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric, Spain’s King Felipe VI, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. 

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