Greater Middle East (bbabo.net), - Democratic values in Sweden are immediately forgotten when it comes to Russia and the politics of the collective West. The Russian Embassy in the kingdom pointed this out when commenting on an article by an Israeli journalist in the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, who was perplexed about the cancellation of the show of paintings by Israeli authors in the Swedish capital.
In its Telegram channel, the embassy recalled that an Israeli journalist wondered why, in a country where unlimited freedom of speech is promoted, a video installation of paintings on a building next to the Israeli Embassy was suddenly excluded from the “cultural night” program in Stockholm “for security reasons,” TASS reports.
“When it comes to Russia, freedom of speech in “democratic” Sweden seems to be forgotten: where, I wonder, were all the local moralists when the Swedish government refused cultural cooperation with the great power, the birthplace of Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Anton Chekhov? The world-famous conductor Vladimir Gergiev, one of the founding fathers of the Baltic Sea Festival, was simply kicked out of the event and was also pointedly expelled from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Russian films were removed from the program of the Stockholm Film Festival, and the broadcasting of Russian TV channels was banned in Sweden and other EU member states. How do local advocates of “democratic values” feel about this? - writes the diplomatic department.
Russian diplomats agree with the author of the Svenska dagbladet article that the increasingly widespread culture of canceling the politically objectionable by Western countries is “in itself outrageous.”
“We, of course, oppose any discriminatory measures, and even more so against the total discrimination of an entire country, Russia, initiated by Sweden. Nevertheless, unlike the Russians, you were at least given the opportunity to speak out in the Swedish press. And if the Swedish media finally raises the issue of double standards in relation to Israel, then it’s time to talk about the criminal “cancellation” of Russia and its centuries-old history and rich culture,” the embassy believes.
Now in Sweden, instead, a different rule applies, the diplomatic mission recalls.
“In the meantime, in Sweden, as everyone can see, instead of truly democratic principles, another rule applies: freedom of speech ends where the policy of the “collective West” begins,” the commentary emphasizes.
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