STOCKHOLM, October 21 (RIA Novosti) - The Swedish Armed Forces admitted Monday evening that they have failed to maintain transparency and issued false information about the whereabouts of the alleged foreign submarine in the Stockholm archipelago.
"The Armed Forces are conducting an intelligence operation in the Stockholm archipelago. . . We are supposed to do this with maximum transparency while preserving operational secrecy. This is how a credible, correct authority should and must act to preserve public confidence. It must be said that the Armed Forces in a sense have failed at this," Sweden's Armed Forces said in a statement.
On Sunday, Sweden's Armed Forces released a photograph of an object, suspected to be a foreign submarine in the Stockholm archipelago and a map, allegedly showing where the photo was taken. The area of the sighting was reported to be Jungfrufjärden, a fjard near the settlement of Dalarö south of Stockholm.
However, an investigation carried out by Sweden's public broadcaster SVT showed that no locations in the area matched the photograph. After being confronted by the SVT's journalists, Swedish forces admitted issuing false information to avoid "helping foreign powers".
"In retrospect, I should have been clearer during the press conference that I was showing a map with the approximate positions because I did not wish to reveal any exact positions with regard to the operation," deputy operational director Anders Grenstad said late Monday.
Swedish forces first launched a major operation off the coast of Stockholm on Friday after receiving information, reportedly from a civilian, about the presence of an unknown underwater object in the region, suspected to be a foreign submarine.
