Russia has been accused of dumping radioactive waste into the heavily-polluted Baltic Sea in the early 1990s. The reports come from Sweden’s national TV broadcast network, SVT, who quote military intelligence documents. The network says a prosecutor, Mats Palm, is looking into the case and that a preliminary analysis started back in spring 2009.

“Radioactive material from a military base in Latvia is thought to have been thrown into Swedish waters. For many the biggest shock is that the Swedish government may have known at the time and done nothing about it,” the BBC says.

A former commander of the Russian navy’s Baltic fleet today denied the reports. “This is complete nonsense and a clear provocation, propagated at an international level,” Admiral Vladimir Yegorov told the Interfax news agency (AFP).

The Baltic Sea at Darłowo/wikimedia commons