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So the far right is not pro-Russian in Sweden? Why is that?

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
by eurogreen on Sat Feb 26th, 2022 at 08:38:52 PM EST
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Russia is the Swedish arch-enemy. Well arch-enemy number two after Denmark, but Sweden won the power struggle over Denmark (and got Norway), and lost the one with Russia (they took Finland!), so Sweden is all good with Denmark.

Didn't we use to have a macro for Rysskräck?

Testing: [Starvid's Rysskräck™ Technology] - oh look it works.

For newcomers, Starvid is another poster from Sweden and Rysskräck is a Swedish word for the fear that the Russians are coming.

The far right can be - and have been - cozy with Russia over shared islamophobia, general conservatism, and so on. The far right even employed a possible Russian spy in parliament (I don't remember how that one ended). But in this situation I think Rysskräck trumps islamophobia among their voters.

This might look strange to those who don't read Swedish media, but there was a few weeks ago lots of very serious press on how Sweden was beefing up defenses at Gotland.  One might think that a Russia pre-occupied with Ukraine would have less troops to spare to occupy Gotland. One might not even consider Gotland the first place Russia would attack, but in that case one hasn't been reading Swedish newspapers and one doesn't know the feeling of Rysskräck.

So in short, when there is a feeling that the Russians are coming, and the Ukrainians are fleeing the Russians, it would be down right anti-Swedish to support the Russians. And I don't think the far right can afford to be seen as such.

On the other hand, NATO membership just became an election issue (elections are in September). How that fares remains to be seen.

by fjallstrom on Sat Feb 26th, 2022 at 10:58:16 PM EST
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