Russian intelligence scrambles to conceal involvement in Stockholm provocation

The demands to the President of Turkey to allow Sweden to join NATO, voiced by the far-right activist Rasmus Paladan, who burned the Quran in Stockholm, are part of an operation of the Russian special services aimed at concealing their effort to initially mastermind the act of provocation.

That’s according to Oleksandr V. Danylyuk, head of the Center for Defense Reforms, coordinator of the interdepartmental platform on countering hybrid threats, operating within the framework of Ukraine-NATO cooperation, who spoke with Guildhall, as seen by Ukrinform.

The Russians apply reflexive control when making public demands to make decisions opposite to the initial goal of the malign operation.

“The statement of the leader of the far-right Hard Line party Rasmus Paladan, who burned the Quran in Stockholm earlier, involving threats and demands to the Turkish president to let Sweden into NATO, is part of the operation run by the Russian special services to conceal their participation in organizing and running the effort. In this case, the reverse principle is applied, when the actor publicly puts forward demands that are opposite to the true goal of the operation. Which in this case clearly indicates that the real task of the effort was precisely to counter Sweden's accession into NATO,” said the head of the Center for Defense Reforms.

“A classic example of reflexive control, which is one of the key tools applied by the Soviet, and today Russian, special services. This method is well illustrated in the Soviet cartoon where the rabbit asked the fox to do "anything it wants" except throwing him into the bush – only in order to eventually end up precisely there," concluded Danylyuk.

It should be recalled that earlier, the Center for Defense Reforms published a report stating that the burning of the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm (Sweden) was in fact a malign operation of Russian intelligence services targeting the national interests of Turkey, Sweden, and Finland, including to undermine the process of Sweden and Finland joining NATO. The CDR notes that such “active measures” by Russia could ignite religious conflicts in Europe, radicalize the Islamic minority, provoking acts of terror on the territory of the EU as retribution.