Only Russia believes fake claim that King Carl XVI did not shake hands with Zelensky – Swedish expert

The absurd narrative spread by Russian propaganda claiming that during his visit to Ukraine King Carl XVI of Sweden did not want to shake hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could have been believed only in Russia.

Swedish expert Magnus Hjort, Director General of the Swedish Psychological Defense Agency, said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"The topic of the Battle of Poltava comes up a lot and most recently it came up when the Swedish King visited Ukraine. There was Russian disinformation saying that the King wouldn't shake hands with Zelensky, which, of course, is totally untrue. So it was a false accusation. The King shook hands with him many times. The fact that the King of Sweden visited Ukraine was to show our support and commitment to Ukraine. And of course, that is something that Russia tries to eradicate, promoting the narrative that Sweden does not support Ukraine. But, of course, it is very difficult to make Swedes believe that because we all know that the Swedish King wouldn't go to Ukraine and not shake hands. This is ridiculous, but some people in Russia may believe this," Hjort said.

He noted during the visit of King Carl XVI to Ukraine, Russian propaganda once again invoked the Battle of Poltava.

"They are totally committed to using this topic, which absolutely no one cares about in Sweden. In fact, it seems like they truly believe that we are hurt by them mentioning Poltava. But we are not, because this happened over 300 years ago," Hjort said.

Another propaganda narrative that Moscow actively used against Stockholm during Sweden's NATO accession process was the alleged Islamophobia in Sweden.

"When we applied for NATO membership, the Russians tried to stop that by accusing Sweden of being an Islamophobic country. We had a Quran burning outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, which Russia used to promote the narrative that Sweden is an Islamophobic country that doesn't care about religion. Of course, the objective here was to persuade Turkey not to accept Sweden's membership in NATO, which of course Turkey did in the end. So this campaign didn't work," the expert said.

Hjort also described another propaganda narrative used by Russia since World War II, related to the Danish island of Bornholm, where the Red Army remained for a year after the war ended.

"The Russian side today wants to portray this as they were there to 'stabilize the situation.' I mean, the Danish people didn't need that. The Estonians didn't need their capital being bombed in March 1944. The present government of the Russian Federation calls this 'liberation from the Nazis.' Well, this is a 'liberation' that Estonia didn't need," the Swedish expert said.