We deserve criticism – Sydsvenskan

“He has resigned and is no longer working with us,” SD writes.

The employee was born in Russia, but has lived in Sweden since childhood. He had his position in the communications department of SD, which was highlighted in TV4's “Kalla Fakta” program for its intense activity with anonymous troll accounts.

On his private social media accounts, he wrote positively about Russia and Putin, as well as publishing articles from Russian state-controlled media channels.

The posts mainly date from the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and the years that followed, as well as in 2022, after the large-scale attack.

Party leader Jamie Akesson comments on the matter during a visit to Karlstad:

-This is very old stuff. I did not address the matter other than to tell his manager that it was good to have this resolved as quickly as possible and as far as I understand it has been settled; Acheson tells NWT he resigned.

He says SD checks people's backgrounds before hiring them and finds it “very strange to be sneaking around.”

The Sweden Democrats' press department first told Expressen that the information about the staffer was “new information to us”, that the party was taking the matter seriously, that it would be investigated internally and that the man had been suspended.

On Wednesday afternoon, after a series of sharp reactions from politicians of various colors, news came of the man's resignation.

Åkesson says this is a mistake on SD's part and that it deserves criticism.

– He should not have been appointed with this background.

When he himself was confronted about his posts by Expressen, the employee said:

– I did not write anything about Ukraine except that I provided support to Ukraine and helped the Ukrainians who fled here. So I don't know what you're looking at.