MOSCOW, October 21 (RIA Novosti) - The ongoing operation in the Stockholm archipelago is not connected to a Dutch submarine that recently visited Sweden, the Swedish Armed Forces told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
"Swedish Armed Forces will not speculate regarding the foreign activity in the Archipelago of Stockholm. We are still conducting an intelligence operation and as long as the operation is ongoing we will not be able to comment," a spokesperson for the Swedish forces said in an e-mail correspondence with RIA Novosti.
"Although we can tell you that we have been able to establish that the foreign activity we are investigating is not connected to the Dutch submarine that visited Sweden last week," the spokesperson added.
The Swedish Armed Forces first launched a major operation off the coast of Stockholm on Friday after receiving information, reportedly from a civilian, about the presence of a suspicious underwater object in the region.
On Monday, a Russian Defense Ministry source told RIA Novosti that the unidentified object, suspected to be a foreign submarine, could belong to the Dutch Navy.
A spokesperson for the Royal Netherlands Navy confirmed to RIA Novosti that several Dutch vessels had recently visited Sweden to take part in an international military exercise, but the alleged submarine sought by Sweden could not belong to the Netherlands as its vessels left Swedish waters on Thursday.
