DISINFO: The Americans decide for Swedes regarding accession to NATO
DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS
  • Outlet: rg.ru (archived)*
  • Date of publication: May 19, 2022
  • Article language(s): Russian
  • Reported in: Issue 291
  • Countries / regions discussed: Sweden
Tags:
US presence in Europe NATO EU/NATO enlargement

DISINFO: The Americans decide for Swedes regarding accession to NATO

SUMMARY

Every second Swede understands what hole the American friends are pulling Stockholm into. [...] More than two hundred years of Swedish neutrality, which guarantees the Kingdom's security and prosperity, are now in the past. So why wasn't there a referendum? [regarding Sweden's accession to NATO]. Because no one has asked the people in Sweden for a long time. The Americans decide for the Swedes.

RESPONSE

Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about "lost sovereignty" that appeared in the context of Sweden's accession request to NATO.

Both Sweden and Finland submitted formal applications to join NATO in May 2022. Sweden is a sovereign country, which submitted its membership bid following the decision of the Swedish parliament.

Earlier, the Swedish Prime Minister said the country will not hold a referrendum regading the NATO accession, if the parliament supports the decision. According to the Prime Minister:

There is a lot of information about national security that is confidential, so there are important issues in such a referendum that cannot be discussed and important facts that cannot be put on the table.

The Swedish parliament made the decision to apply for the NATO membership following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. According to the Prime Minister:

Sweden is best defended within NATO. [...] Unfortunately, we have no reason to believe that the trend (of Russia’s actions) will reverse in the foreseeable future.

In both Finland and Sweden there is overwhelmingly broad-based support across the political landscape which has also been manifested in the process in the parliaments: in Finland with 188 deputies voting for and only 8 against NATO membership application. In Sweden, among it's eight parties in parliament, only two smaller left-leaning parties oppose the application for membership.

See related earlier disinformation claims alleging that All decisions of EU and NATO states are exclusively dictated by the US, NATO absorbed Eastern European states orphaned by Soviet collapse, Russia will talk directly to the USA as NATO is not a real international organisation.

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Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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