The documents from inside Russia show how Russian intelligence, with inspiration from the Koran burnings in Sweden, planned influence campaigns in major European cities. It is revealed in an international review where SVT and Expressen are Swedish partners.
Gabriel Wernstedt, spokesperson at the Security Police, describes it as interesting information.
– This is interesting information and it is in line with what we have seen in terms of Russian influence on Sweden and on Western countries, he says.
Otherwise, he does not want to go into whether Säpo knows about this particular influence campaign from before or how they are working against it.
Exploiting sensitive issues
– What we see is that Russian influence usually aims to shape a narrative that is favorable to Russia. It can be about, for example, creating divisions in society and exploiting issues that you know can be divisive.
According to Gabriel Wernstedt, influence activities in Sweden are perhaps above all aimed at people with connections to Russia. But other groups can also become targets.
– Not least politicians and civil servants who make decisions that Russia wants to influence in various ways. Disinformation is then spread with the aim of influencing the image of Russia and smearing Sweden.