Sweden is the goal of a disinformation marketing campaign by “Russia-backed actors” meant to harm the picture of the NATO-candidate nation by implying it supported latest burnings of the Koran, its Minister for Civil Defence stated on Wednesday.

Sweden’s bid to hitch NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put it within the worldwide highlight, whereas numerous demonstrations at which protesters have burned copies of the Muslim holy e book have angered Muslims around the globe.

“Sweden is the target of a disinformation campaign supported by state and state-like actors with the aim of damaging Swedish interests and … Swedish citizens,” the minister, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, informed reporters at a press convention.

“We can see how Russia-backed actors are amplifying incorrect statements such as that the Swedish state is behind the desecration of holy scriptures,” he stated.

“That is, naturally, completely false,” Bohlin stated, including that such state actors tried to “create division and weaken Sweden’s international standing.”

There was no fast reply from the Russian embassy in Stockholm to a request for remark concerning the minister’s remarks.

Mikael Ostlund, a spokesman for Sweden’s Psychological Defence Agency, informed the press convention: “Russia is using these opportunities to promote its agenda in the media and the message there aims, of course, at splitting us in the West and at creating increased concern and division here in Sweden.”

“Obviously, one such ambition from Russia’s side is to be able to complicate our joining NATO.”

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

In a press release earlier this month, Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom stated the desecration of holy texts was “offensive and disrespectful”. “Expressions of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance have no place in Sweden or in Europe,” he stated.

Copies of the Koran have been burned at a number of demonstrations in Sweden and Denmark this summer time, inflicting outrage amongst Muslims and prompting protesters to storm and vandalize the Swedish embassy in Baghdad.

Denmark and Sweden have stated they deplore the burning of the Koran however can not stop it beneath guidelines defending free speech.

Turkey, which holds a veto over Swedish NATO membership, has condemned the protests and known as on Stockholm to take motion in opposition to the perpetrators.

Earlier on Wednesday, Sweden’s safety service, SAPO, warned that Sweden’s safety scenario had worsened because of the latest controversy over freedom of speech.

“The image of Sweden has changed. We have gone from being seen as a tolerant country to being a land that is anti-Muslim – that’s how we are seen … mainly the Muslim parts of the world,” Susanna Trehorning, Deputy Head of the Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Subversion Unit at SAPO, informed Swedish state broadcaster SVT.

Sweden’s security-alert degree has not been modified, nonetheless, and is at the moment at 3 on a scale of 5, indicating “heightened risk”. Five is the very best degree of risk.