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Swedish center-right leader Ulf Kristersson claims election win

The Moderate party’s opposition leader Ulf Kristersson claimed victory Wednesday evening in Sweden’s general election after three days of vote counting resulted in a narrow three-seat advantage for his side.

“We have an election result, we have the mandate for change we asked for,” Moderate Party leader Kristersson said as the result was announced. “I will now begin the process of forming a new government for Sweden and all its citizens.”

Outgoing premier Magdalena Andersson conceded defeat. She said she would resign as prime minister on Thursday, but remain leader of the Social Democrats in opposition. 

Ulf Kristersson now faces a fresh challenge to stitch together a functioning government from the disparate group of allies that back him to lead Sweden.

 

Several members of UCP leadership detained in Belarus

Some days ago, the leader of UCP party in Belarus Mikalai Kazlou was once again detained in Belarus. This time the former UCP vice chair Antanina Kavaliova and the regional chair of UCP in the Minsk region Aksana Alyakseeva, were detained together with him. 

This follows months of increased repression and brutal handling of the democratic forces in the country, a development that has increased severely since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February. 

The UCP Political Council considers the detentions and arrests “a gross violation of the current constitution and calls this a campaign to intimidate party members and supporters” in the oldest dictatorship in Europe. 

Furthermore, the UCP political council calls on the sister parties from EPP to campaign in solidarity with the detained, arrested and convicted leaders and activists of the UCP. 

Ukrainian ambassador in Stockholm awarded royal order

Yesterday, the ambassador of Ukraine in Sweden, Mr. Andrii Plakhotniuk, was awarded the Royal Order of the Polar Star. In a decree issued by His Majesty The King, Plakhotniuk was appointed Commander 1st Class of the order. It is common that an ambassador receives the order from the King at the end of the diplomatic tenure in Stockholm. However, by awarding the Ukrainian ambassador the royal order at this point, Sweden shows in a unique move its support for the Ukrainian fight for peace and freedom.  The order was handed to Andrii Plakhotniuk by the foreign minister in a small ceremony at the ministry of foreign affairs. 

Another Russian opposition leader detained

Ilya Yashin, former leader of the Russian liberal party PARNAS, has reportedly been detained in Russia. The party PARNAS, now led by former Russian prime minister Michail Kasyanov, is considered one of the most stable actors within the liberal opposition movement in Russia.

One of his aides said that he was charged with disobeying police and insulting them while being detained. However, no explanation has been made on why he was approached by the police in a Moscow park in the first place. He now faces 15 days in Russian prison.

 

Lithuania Defends Sanctions on Some Goods to Kaliningrad

Two days ago, Lithuania decided to bar rail transit from Russia to a Russian Baltic Sea exclave of goods hit by European Union sanctions, in a move that drew Moscow’s strong anger amid high tensions in the region.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said Lithuania was simply implementing the sanctions imposed by the EU, of which the country is a member. He said the measures implemented on Saturday were taken after “consultation with the European Commission and under its guidelines.”

Navalny transferred to maximum-security prison

This week, the lawyers of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny were denied meeting him as as planned since long. Upon their arrival to the penal colony where Navalny has been held for months, Russian authorities explained to the lawyers that Navalny simply was not there, since he had been transferred to a new maximum-security prison.

Questions regarding his whereabouts and health remain unanswered.
In March, Navalny was sentenced to nine years in prison. He was convicted on charges of fraud in a trial that was entirely politically motivated and orchestrated from the Kremlin.

EU Commission: It is a moral duty to make the EU membership possible for Ukraine

A couple of days after Russia launched a war on Ukraine, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy officially signed his country’s request for EU membership.

Last week, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen explained that the Ukrainian people are fighting bravely because they know exactly that they want their society to be free and open, belonging to a strong democratic community.

”The EU commission will stand by the Ukrainians side with all the track record we have, with all the experience we have, to achieve these reforms leading to EU accession”, von der Leyen said.

As a first step in the process, the EU executive body will present its opinion if Ukraine can receive the candidate status and start membership negotiations.

EU leaders are expected to make an assessment of the request at their next summit on June 23-24.

Professor Nenad Stojanovic: Nationalist politics might cause new conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina

 The political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina still contains of nationalistic tensions since the war in the 90s, because of the ruling partys continuation to operate a nationalistic agenda.

”The thing that should worry us the most is when we see that some of these policies are proto-fascist, because they advocate the ideology of “blood and soil”. And such an ideology has always proved disastrous for humanity, including the peoples in whose name it was implemented,” Stojanovic said.

The discussion must be about eliminating discrimination and reforming the electoral system, abolition of the House of Peoples at the state level, but also at the entity level, because of the unclearness to the inhabitans what they are for. The national interest can be protected within the House of Representatives.

“The international community, and especially the European Union, is still important because it represents a support for at least those residents of Bosnia and Herzegovina who are aware that the policies of certain ethno-national leaders can lead them into new conflicts”, Stojanovic finished.

 

EU will play a fundamental role in the prosecution of Putin’s crimes

The illegal invasion of Ukraine has resulted in huge international condemnation and a call for accountability for the brutal actions made by Vladimir Putin.

”Of all Ukraine’s partners, however, the European Union is best poised to ensure maximum possible accountability, and it can do so by backing a special war crimes chamber within the courts of Ukraine”, Honorary Chairman for Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation and former prime minister of Sweden, Carl Bildt states.

Some national authorities have worked many years to investigate the wave of crime cases by Russia from 2014–2022, but with lacking results. The EU is now observing this carefully.

”This month, the EU Commission proposed strengthening Eurojust’s mandate to include collection and preservation of evidence in Ukraine, and this initiative could form the nucleus for a future court’s prosecution office”, Bildt says.

As mentioned above, the possibilities to bring justice to the Ukrainian people are several, and thankfully, the support from EU is already massive.

 

Victory Day speeches from Zelenskyy and Putin

 

On Victory Day, May 9, both president Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin talked more about the present than the past. Both of them insisted that their respective enemies today were the heirs of the Nazis, and they gave their promise that their countries would succeed in what both of them said was a defensive war they had been forced to fight.

The main difference, however, was that for most people existing beyond the reach of Russian state television, Zelenskyy’s arguments were probably a lot more convincing. Putin has under a long period of time used his May 9 speeches to draw parallels between the second world war and the present day, and this year was nothing new, except for the intensification of the speech, when his army at the same time was fighting a new war.

The West was “rewriting history”, Putin complained, ignoring the fact that his regime has done more than any other in Europe to dismantle free historical inquiry about the war years. 

One of the telegrams Putin sent on the occasion was a message to the Ukrainian people, wanting them to have “good health, success and a long life”. A short while after the speech, air raid sirens sounded again in Kyiv.

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