Yle: Russia tried to prevent Finland and Sweden from joining NATO with anti-Islamic demonstrations

The Russians wanted to prevent Finland and Sweden from joining NATO. For this, they planned to hold anti-Islamic demonstrations in the countries.

This is stated in the Russian intelligence document, which was obtained by the Finnish “Yle” editorial office and the Russian “Dossier” investigative project.

In the plan of the Russians, it is said that the demonstrations, which were supposed to take place after the burning of the Koran in Sweden, should increase the fear of Islam in the EU countries. The document calls for further escalation of this tension. However, in the document that ended up at the disposal of journalists, there are no signs that Russia managed to implement its plans in Finland.

In the material, the Russian special service lists the methods of implementing the destabilization campaign.

In particular, demonstrations were planned in major cities of Europe that would mock the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The plan also included the creation of anti-Islamic graffiti.

The Russian “Dossier” investigative project received the classified papers in two installments — at the end of 2022 and in the spring of this year. In addition to the document on the plans, the “Dossier” center received a report on the completed operation. It describes a Russian destabilization campaign that took place in the center of Paris in March 2023. At that time, demonstrations against Islam and Turkey were organized in the French capital.

• In May 2022, Sweden and Finland abandoned their traditional neutrality against the background of Russiaʼs military invasion of Ukraine and applied for NATO membership. Finland joined the bloc in April 2023. Of the 30 NATO countries, Turkey and Hungary have not yet ratified Swedenʼs accession. Turkey blocked the entry, arguing that Stockholm had not fulfilled its obligations to extradite alleged Kurdish extremists.