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SWEDEN. After two Russian comedians managed to get Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde to reveal that she is open to supporting secret sanctions against Russia, which means ousting Putin, the Foreign Ministry replied that “foreign policy relations have not been affected”. Now the Russian embassy replies that they do not agree with the Foreign Ministry at all.
By NewsVoice | Image: Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde (Photo: Regeringen.se) and the Russian ambassador Viktor Tatarintsev (photo: Ruptly.com)
The comedians pretended to represent the Russian opposition. Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde said during the conversation that the EU has 38 million euros set aside for the development of civil society and human rights. She says that financing can be arranged through her contacts.
In addition to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Linde is also chairman of the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
The Russian embassy’s response to the Foreign Ministry
“We have noted a publication in Expressen of August 1 this year dedicated to a telephone conversation that took place between Sweden’s Foreign Minister A. Linde and the [two] famous online scammers on July 29 this year who pretended to be Julia Navalnaja, the wife of a Russian opposition man, and head of his regional staffs Leonid Volkov.
Even with regard to the fact that it was a scam, the content of the conversation, unfortunately, convinces us again that Stockholm does not intend to deviate from its chosen course of confrontation with our country and does not strive to find ways to clean up the bilateral cooperation with Russia.
Instead of calls for developing good neighborly relations between Moscow and Stockholm, the minister actually says openly about the Swedish authorities’ readiness to finance an extremist organization that is banned in our country and does not support system opposition.
In addition, the comment of the Foreign Ministry’s press service that the conversation took place “after an official request” arouses sincere surprise. We would like to draw the special attention of the masters of Swedish diplomacy to the fact that Navalny’s employees are not representatives of official Russian authorities, and therefore cannot be considered a source of official inquiries by definition.
This is the main thing, but not the most important. The most important are the following:
We would like the Foreign Ministry’s press release writers to notice that their profound conclusion that «the foreign policy relations have thereby not been affected» (i.e. the Swedish-Russian relations) is incorrect.
Such proposals in support of a so-called “opposition” constitute, gracious gentlemen, a clear example of an intervention in the internal affairs of neighboring Russia and can not be considered in any other way than as directly detrimental to our bilateral relations.”
Source: Russian Embassy in Switzerland – Russian Embassy in Sweden
Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde has a somewhat different and more normal approach as explained on the Swedish Government’s website. Not a word about wanting to overthrow a state leader in a neighboring country:
“As ever more democracies around the world are being challenged, Sweden must remain a strong and respected voice for peace, freedom and human rights. Our foreign policy will help, in cooperation with others, to increase security and safety, in our neighbourhood and globally. This is how we protect our fundamental democratic rights and our common security throughout the world.”
The Swedish governmental controlled media has so far refused to comment on the international scandal.
Text and translation: NewsVoice