People in Sweden are more positive towards increased defence spending than citizens of any other country in the EU, according to a new opinion poll by Novus. Torbjörn Sjöström, Novus’ chief executive, put this down to Swedes’ higher trust in government. 

“This is often the case when politicians unveil a big investment, so now, with the Ukraine war in the background, Swedes are positive towards it, because people still have relatively big trust in government,” he told Swedish state broadcaster SR. 

Some 78 percent of people in Sweden think that the defence budget should increase, compared to an EU average of 52 percent. 

Swedish Vocab: en satsning – an investment

“Caring for refugees is ultimately a national responsibility, and today the municipalities have no guarantee that they will be reimbursed for all the costs that are likely to arise,” Annika Wallenskog, the association’s chief economist, told Sweden’s TT newswire. 

The association has sent in a request for clarification to the government. 

The association also wants the government to change some regulations, so that Ukrainian mothers can get more than the current 15 hours a week of daycare for their children over the age of three.

Finally, it wants the government to commit money towards education in the Ukrainian language, as current budgets are insufficient.  

Russia’s propaganda machine has “completely failed” in Ukraine: Psychological Defence Agency 

Sweden’s Psychological Defence Agency has condemned Russia’s propaganda operation in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine as a “total failure”, pointing to the way that social media accounts run by Russian operatives have seen posts in favour of Russia’s invasion drowned out by louder critical voices. 

“We have a good understanding of how they operate and here they have totally failed,” Mikael Tofvesson, chief of one of the agency’s units. 

He points to a tweet from the Russian foreign department that argued that everything was going according to plan and “all our goals are going to be met”. “Life will soon return to normal in the areas freed from the nationalists.” 

The tweet immediately spurred thousands of tweets ridiculing the Russian position, posting images of burning Russian vehicles and memes about Bagdad Bob. 

“That’s something they should only have posted in a medium that they themselves control and know that they will not get any pushback,” he said. “They made themselves the target, which is unprofessional.”