In an interview with the Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbladet, Russia’s Ambassador to Sweden, Viktor Tatarintsev, instructed Stockholm and other capitals on their own foreign policy decision-making.
Speaking at the Russian Embassy in Stockholm, Tatarintsev criticized NATO for being aggressive and made it clear that “those looking to become new NATO members must give up on the idea as an overriding matter of principle.”
Asked the question “But does Sweden not have the right to decide itself whether it wants to join NATO?” Tatarintsev answered: “We are not saying no to Sweden. We are saying that to NATO and the U.S. This is not a bilateral relations matter between only Russia and Sweden. It is a principal question.”
At the same time, he did not clarify why Swedish membership of NATO poses a threat to Russia’s security, noting that he “does not want to speculate about that” and adding “I see no attempts from Sweden to join NATO in the near future.”
In Tatarintsev’s view, it is also regretful that Sweden “does not to have contacts with the Russian military”. If they had, he believes Stockholm could have called to ask what the six Russian landing crafts were doing in the Baltic Sea amid rising tensions.
In turn, Russia would have supposedly explained that they were there for “a normal technical inspection”. As a result, Tatarintsev said “there would have been nothing to worry about” and “no need to send troops from Boden to Gotland.”
Commenting on Russia’s military build-up at the border, Tatarintsev stated that Russia is not required to give any explanations on the reason for their presence, noting that the troops are 15-20 kilometers away from Ukraine: “We repeated many times that we have no plans to attack Ukraine. That should suffice.”
He also ignored a question about Russia’s actions in invading Georgia in 2008, Crimea’s annexation and the war in eastern Ukraine, choosing to emphasize how Washington and Brussels “set the agenda for the entire Western world when it comes to the Ukraine conflict”.
Russia “does not give a sh*t” about sanctions
Using non-diplomatic language, albeit excusing himself in advance, Tatarintsev gave Russia’s assessment of proposed western sanctions in the event of Moscow’s reinvasion of Ukraine.
Using a Russian expression that literally translates to “we sh*t on them”, he added that the west fails to understand the Russian mentality and that “we do not have Italian or Swiss cheese, but we learned how to make good Russian cheese based on Italian and Swiss recipes.”
Authentic Russian gastronomy
While the interview reiterated that Russia’s current actions have grander geopolitical goals than reinstating its spheres of influence in the former Soviet states, it also shows how profoundly strange, contradictory, and deceitful the Russian agenda is.
The inconsistencies of Tatarintsev’s statements are evident when comparing “Russia will not tolerate Sweden’s potential accession to NATO” alongside “Russia is not saying no to Sweden” and “Russia wants to hear Sweden’s voice”.
This makes Moscow’s foreign policy goals sound like a dish based on an authentic, non-sanctioned Russian recipe – a “kasha in their head”, to describe a situation when one’s thoughts are so mixed, often contradictory, that they turn to porridge.
Furthermore, the rising tensions near the Ukrainian border, as well as Russia’s ultimatums toward NATO and the U.S., have forced a once neutral country to reconsider joining the Alliance.
Sweden might embark on this path in the fall after the country’s general elections. These could lead to a right-wing coalition replacing the ruling social democrats.
