Note: This text is part of the longer text NGOs and state-funded research trying to silence peace voices in Sweden.
There are many outlandish “too good to be true” stories in the way Swedish mainstream media and politicians tried to silence the Swedish peace opposition. One of the most outlandish is the way Egor Putilov has been used by these stories several times. First, he was used as a journalist in the left-wing media and the biggest daily exposing “pseudo” left activists who, as he put it, was controlled by Putin. That those accused by Putilov as Sachnin who is a political refugee from Russian Left front are in opposition to Putin in close cooperation with equally oppositional Borotba party in Ukraine is no to be taken into consideration. As long as, they were critical against the new government in Ukraine, they were portrayed as nothing less then Putin’s agents. This is a message well received by many mainstream media journalists, and especially those promoting Swedish-NATO membership.
In the late summer of 2016, Egor Putilov was once more used as a proof of Russian infiltration in Sweden. But this time it was not what he exposed in his articles but he personally who was the convenient proof of Russia undermining Sweden.
At that time, Putilov was employed by the right wing populist Swedish Democrats under his true name Alexander Fridback. He worked as an aid in the Swedish parliament. He was accused of writing polarizing articles in Aftonbladet under false name. He was then writing against the same articles by another name to stir up controversy about the immigrant policies. It was soon also disclosed that he had made dubious real estate business deals with a Russian businessman linked to criminal activities and Russian authorities. These deals made him look, at least officially, very rich and he was now accused of being a Russian security risk inside the Swedish parliament within a political party that was also accused of being close to Putin.
Finally, a central Putin agent of the kind he himself was writing about was exposed in full day light. It was he himself who was the culprit. Immediately a special hearing was arranged in the parliament. The same journalists, who a year earlier had used Putilov’s accusations against Sachnin and other left wingers of being Putin agents, now used the chance to repeat their narrative again, that we again have a proof of how the Russian state is intervening in Sweden. They reveal the fact that they had used Putilov in the first instance as the main source for their allegations that there are serious Russian threats against Sweden.
Article published in Arbetaren November, 7 2014:
“The technologists behind Putin’s propaganda war”.
Now with disclaimer.
Author: Egor Putilov.
After Putilov was exposed, Arbetaren and Aftonbladet made disclaimers at the top of Putilov’s articles they published which still can be found on the Internet. Other journalists who had used and disseminated the content of Putilov’s articles hastily did what they could to forget about it to focus upon the new opportunity to once again tell the true story about Sweden being filled with Putin agents. After Putilov was expelled from the Swedish Democrats, this story soon faded away. The story is however still occasionally mentioned as an example of how severe the Russian threat against security in Sweden is.
Activists for Peace 