In barely a week, the anger has spread like wildfire. In the capital of Yemen, thousands of people took to the streets to demand a boycott of Swedish products. In Baghdad the expulsion of their ambassador was demanded. In Istanbul Swedish flags burned. And in the Afghan city Chost Screams echoed to strike the sword at the leaders of the Scandinavian country. the Burning of the Koran in Stockholmstaged during a far-right protest Before turkish embassyShe didn’t just hit him islamic worldbut has added yet another obstacle to the tortuous Sweden joins NATO. “Those who allow such blasphemy in front of our embassy should not expect our support to become a member of NATO,” Turkey’s president said this week. Recep Tayyip Erdoganthe man who holds the key to the final ratification of Sweden’s accession.
As the days go by, the obvious becomes free tease of the Nordic extreme right has taken on more confused shades. the long shadow of the Kremlin Plans on the incident that occurred last Saturday during a authorized manifestation by the Swedish authorities near the Turkish legation. Barely a hundred people took part in the protest, which was led by the well-known Danish Islamophobic politician Rasmus Paludan, who was convicted of racist offenses in his country and has also been active in Sweden since his dual citizenship. After a long tirade against the Islam and Muslim immigration, Paludan himself set fire to a Koran in front of the cameras and the police line watching the demonstrators.
The outrage had immediate consequences. Ankara has canceled the forthcoming visit of Sweden’s foreign minister to try to resolve differences that have so far blocked ratification of Turkey’s accession to NATO. Turkey is next to Hungary the only country to continue without giving its consent. Neither for Sweden nor for Finlandwho hold theirs intention to join the Alliance together after renouncing its historical neutrality as a result of Russian invasion of Ukraine. A deal that briefly faltered this week after Finland’s foreign minister hinted before backing down that his country would only be willing to move forward if Turkey objects to Sweden over decades of protection Kurdish militants and dissidents.
“Useful Idiots”
But the story soon took an unexpected turn Swedish television determined that it was the journalist Chang Fricka former RT employeeone of the international channels of the Kremlinthe one who paid for it mandatory rate to celebrate the demonstration on Saturday. Not only that, because in an interview given shortly after the Koran burning, Paludan stated that the Idea wasn’t hisbut by Frick himself, who will also have guaranteed that he would cover it possible legal consequences action. “Some Swedes wanted me to burn a Koran in front of the Turkish embassy,” the Danish arsonist told the Expressen newspaper.
Since then, a lot of attention has been focused on Frick and his family several connections with Russiawho I aminvestigated by the authorities. “Before the invasion of Ukraine, a third of the employees of the Russian embassy in Stockholm worked for the security services, and one of their jobs is to work with what the Soviets called useful idiots& rdqu;, explains this newspaper Magnus Christianson, Professor at the Swedish Defense University. “They maintain contacts to the right and left of the political spectrum, with nothing in common other than theirs Rejection of Sweden’s membership in NATO. So it’s entirely believable that this was a secret operation of the Kremlin“.
Kremlin-affiliated journalist
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Frick currently operates an information portal where criminals are regularly whipped. immigrant and to erdogan regime, and works as a commentator for a television affiliated with the far-right party swedish democrats, the third party in parliament, is allied with the government, although not part of the coalition. He traveled several times Russiawhere he was deployed as an election observer and does not hide his Devotion to Putin. put with a russian autocrat t-shirt or next to a calendar with their portraits. And in 2019, he appeared in a New York Times investigation dedicated to exploring the alleged Russian interference in Sweden to polarize their society fabricated provocations and the indirect funding of right-wing media which they reinforce. “Here it is my real boss It’s Putin& rdquor; he jokingly told one of his reporters.
Be that as it may, the Koran burning has left dry dock for the time being Negotiations between Stockholm and Ankarashot him Anti-Swedish mood in the Muslim world and has confused that Creepy swedish society, not used to feeling threatened outside its borders. “Is a old KGB hand action to create confusion,” says Christiansson. Currently, the Swedish government has not ruled out that the Kremlin is behind the monumental mess.