Archives Europe - Page 15 of 19 - New Eastern Outlook

For more than a year now, since the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the question of admitting two North European countries, Finland and Sweden, to NATO has been on the table. As you know, Helsinki and Stockholm chose to abandon their neutral status and apply for NATO membership in March 2022. It is clear that Russia did not pose a nuclear or other military threat to Sweden or Finland. Furthermore, Moscow has always respected the neutrality of its Scandinavian neighbors in Stockholm and Helsinki…

On June 28, on the last day of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, a demonstrator burned a copy of the Koran outside the Central Mosque in Stockholm. During this demonstration, which the Swedish police allowed to go ahead, a man tore pages out of the Koran, wiped his shoes on them, placed a piece of bacon in the book, and then burned it. About 200 onlookers were present. The Swedish Prime Minister stated that the protest was lawful, but not appropriate. This was not the first time that an incident of this type has triggered discussions on the problems posed by free speech and democracy…

Recent years have given rise to a great deal of evidence that the current governments of some Western nations have stopped taking into account the fundamental rules of international law and are breaking previously made agreements. Their practices include outright lies and deceit; they do not shy away from passing off black as white and proceed to open acts of plunder and theft. In obvious violation of the well-known Vienna rules on international relations, the Americans are seizing buildings that belong to our diplomatic mission, and the Poles have now followed suit…