RLI: Russian GRU’s effort to block Sweden's bid to join NATO

That’s according to Robert Lansing Institute, a U.S.-based think tank, Ukrinform reports.

Through a demonstrative burning of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (military intelligence) likely used exploited the unsuspecting leader of the ultra-right Hard Line party, Rasmus Paludan, with the mediation of a local journalist Chang Johannes Frick, who, according to numerous indications, is a Russian intelligence asset recruited to run psyops. This is per Robert Lansing Institute.

“Stockholm’s accession aspirations became a matter of concern for Moscow. As a result, the Kremlin plotted an operation aiming to escalate contradictions between Türkiye and Sweden amid the upcoming elections in Ankara, realizing that an attack on a religious symbol of Islam can’t be ignored during an ongoing campaign,” RLI reports.

According to analysts, Russia's choice fell on Paludan in connection with his previous notorious stunts when he burned the Quran in Denmark, Germany, and France, as well as demonstrated a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad, which is strictly prohibited in Islam.

"Thus, the scenario was likely chosen of an active measure through an act of religious provocation. Earlier, similar measures eventually fueled mass riots and even terrorist acts, as in the case of the Charlie Hebdo HQ in France. Paludan’s far-right ideology and anti-migrant policies totally fit the Kremlin in running intelligence operations within the wide framework of the anti-migrant movement across Europe, which Moscow has been generously cultivating since 2015," RLI analysts note.