'Russia's Psychological Warfare Against Sweden' Which Has Never Been Waged

Aftonbladet, a Swedish tabloid, has attempted to analyze how the Swedes have been made to believe that Russia is “constantly invading their home country with submarines and planes”, that Sweden is a “constant target for Russia’s nuclear drills” and that Russia is “constantly testing Swedish combat effectiveness.”

The Swedish media seems to be constantly inventing myths about Russia’s “hybrid warfare” against their home country, according to Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet.

The Swedes have been deceived into believing that “Russia is constantly invading their home country by sea and by air”, and that Sweden is “constantly used as a target in Russia’s nuclear drills.”

The outlet cites as an example the May reports that “it was Russia” behind a number of consecutive acts of sabotage of the country’s radio masts and an IT failure of gigantic proportions which "grounded half of Sweden's air traffic and made it impossible to book rail tickets through the website of the country’s railroad system."

Even though, it says, the outlets have constantly debunked the earlier reports, the majority of which have turned out to be mere falsifications if not full-blown hoaxes, “fear of a possible Russian invasion has made many Swedish journalists completely abandon a critical analysis of the country’s defense.”

It also cites as an example the reports of the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN), which calls Russia’s denials of any involvement in the country’s failures “a mockery” and argues with the country's own Defense Ministry, which has ruled out any phantom “submarine invasion” of the country.

Meanwhile, the newspaper says, some of these reports are so poorly reasoned that they seem like parodies.

It cites as an example a DN report which labelled former Swedish diplomat and weapons inspector Hans Blix a “member of Putin’s Swedish Brigade” for being skeptical about an “imminent Russian war of conquest.”

As if to prove all the above, Swedish English language news website The Local published an article where it once again claimed that “Sweden is being subjected to constant disinformation campaigns by Russia and ISIS (Daesh).”

Without any proof provided, the website plainly blames Russia for “spreading pro-Russian messages", "exacerbating worries and [creating] splits in society.”

“False information about subjects including NATO, immigration and terrorism, is spread on a daily basis in Sweden,” it quotes Mikael Tofvesson of the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) as telling Swedish radio on Wednesday.

“This is going on all the time. The pattern now is that they pump out a constant narrative that in some respects is negative for Sweden,” he apparently adds.

Psychological warfare, it claims, “includes a large range of activities intended to affect public opinion and political decision-making. While some disinformation is directly related to Russia, much of it focuses on issues like immigration and terrorism.”

It only remains to be seen when the same very website will publish a refutation of the above very claim.