Last weekend’s incident in which a copy of the Koran was burned in Stockholm outside the Turkish embassy, ​​sparking a furious reaction from Ankara that threatens Sweden’s NATO candidacy, was funded by a Kremlin-backed far-right journalist with media ties. , writes The Guardian, citing News.ro.

The Muslim holy book was set on fire last Saturday outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm by Rasmus Paludan, a far-right anti-Islam politician with dual Danish and Swedish citizenship who has committed similar acts in the past. .

Swedish media reported that the fee for Paludan’s demonstration permit, which costs 320 Swedish kroner ($31), was paid by a former co-author of the Kremlin-backed Russia Today channel. His name is Chang Frick, and he is now a frequent media speaker for the far-right Sweden Democrats.

Frick confirmed that he had paid for a permit to organize the protest, but denied that he had asked anyone to burn a Muslim holy book.

The gesture, which came at a difficult time for Sweden, drew criticism in the Islamic world and deepened the conflict with Turkey over Sweden’s bid to join NATO. The candidacy must be ratified by all 30 NATO member states, and the only countries that have not yet done so are Hungary and Turkey.

“Those who allow such blasphemy in front of our embassy can no longer count on our support for their accession to NATO,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in response to the Koran burning.

Despite calls from Sweden to resume trilateral talks with Turkey and Finland, another NATO candidate country, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Thursday that it would be “senseless” to hold further talks. Also on Friday, Turkey summoned Denmark’s ambassador and accused Denmark in approving a “hate crime”.

Who is Chung Freak?

“Some Swedes would like me to burn the Koran in front of the Turkish embassy,” Paludan told local media when asked why he made the gesture.

In an interview with the website The Insider, Chung Frick confirmed that he had paid for a permit to organize the protest, but claimed that burning the Muslim holy book was “not his idea”. He also told the website that he had not worked for Russia Today, later renamed RT, since 2014 and that he had not supported Russia since the annexation of Crimea.

Frick, a former Sweden Democrats official, is the founder of a far-right website dedicated to Swedish immigration. In an interview with the New York Times in 2019, he joked about his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Pulling out a wad of rubles after a recent trip to Russia, he told a reporter: “Here’s my real boss! It’s Putin!”

Frick also regularly hosts a show on a media channel linked to the far-right Sweden Democrats. This party has entered into an agreement to support a tripartite coalition in Sweden, but is not part of the government.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden – the country that presides over the EU Council – Tobias Billström said that Islamophobic provocations are terrible. “There is a lot of freedom of speech in Sweden, but that does not mean that the Swedish government or I support the views expressed,” he said.

Finland and Sweden began trilateral talks with Turkey last year aimed at overcoming Ankara’s objections to their joining NATO. Sweden’s government says it has done exactly what it promised to strengthen its anti-terror laws, but Turkey is demanding more, including the extradition of 130 people it considers “terrorists”.

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• Tensions between Sweden and Turkey have been heightened by protests in Stockholm where the Koran was burned
• Sweden should not be counted on to support Turkey’s accession to NATO after the demonstrations in Stockholm, Erdogan said