MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/: The activities of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Swedish Institute in Russia are undesirable and should be stopped immediately, the Russian Foreign Ministry told the Swedish Charge d'Affaires in Russia on Tuesday.
"Swedish Charge d'Affaires in Russia J. Danielsson was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on June 28th. He was told that any activities of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Swedish Institute on the territory of the Russian Federation are undesirable and must be terminated immediately. In case Swedish diplomatic and consular institutions make any further efforts to promote projects of these agencies, their staff will be declared personae non gratae with the relevant abstract. The head of the Swedish diplomatic mission has been handed a corresponding note," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
As the Russian Foreign Ministry noted, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Swedish Institute are engaged in "the practical implementation of the Swedish government’s policy in the area of assisting and promoting national culture, language and foreign way of life, respectively."
"Currently, these organizations serve as an instrument to implement Sweden's Strategy for Democracy, Human Rights and the Environment in Russia 2020-2024", with a total budget of 389 million Swedish kronor," the diplomatic mission pointed out.
At the same time, the Foreign Ministry emphasized that when Russia started its special military operation to protect Donbass, Sweden announced that all funds under the aforementioned strategy ‘will henceforth be used exclusively to support Russian democratic, human rights, environmental NGOs and independent media’." "About 40% of the strategies’ total budget, originally allocated for the implementation of Russian-Swedish projects in other spheres with state participation, would be redirected for these purposes. Thus, Russian Swedish environmental initiatives in the Baltic Sea region and the Barents Euro-Arctic region, as well as the experiences exchange in ensuring social welfare and improving the living conditions of people with disabilities through ministries, agencies, regions and municipalities, as well as cooperation through state universities", the ministry stressed.
In this connection, the Foreign Affairs Ministry pointed out that the projects of these organizations do not meet the declared objectives of bilateral humanitarian and environmental cooperation, but are aimed at destabilizing Russian society. "At present, the projects of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Swedish Institute implemented on the territory of the Russian Federation, including within the framework of the aforementioned strategy, do not meet the stated objectives of promoting bilateral humanitarian and environmental cooperation, but are focused on striving to destabilize Russian society. The funding of such projects, despite repeated reminders from the Russian side of the need to make them transparent, was in fact non-transparent," the diplomatic mission summarized.
