The Russian Embassy in Stockholm reports repeated vandalism targeting its diplomatic properties in Sweden.
According to the Russian Embassy in Stockholm, an unidentified drone targeted the Russian trade mission in Sweden on Tuesday. The embassy characterized this as an act of vandalism and criticized Swedish authorities for their continued inaction. The embassy claims that the Russian diplomatic mission in Sweden has been the target of more than a dozen similar attacks in the past year.
The embassy stated that a drone flew over the trade mission early Tuesday, dropping a bag of paint at the entrance.
The embassy emphasized that the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations provides the same protection to the trade mission as to other Russian diplomatic buildings in Sweden. They added that the convention obligates Stockholm to “ensure the inviolability” of these facilities.
The embassy highlighted that this incident follows “a series of similar recent attacks on the premises of Russia’s diplomatic mission in Sweden, threatening the safety of its employees and damaging the property of the mission.”
Sweden’s authorities have once again failed to comply with their international legal obligations.
Following an incident last month where a drone dropped a glass container filled with paint on the Russian Embassy in Stockholm, diplomats have pointed out that numerous appeals to the Swedish police have not stopped these occurrences.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that the building has been attacked at least 15 times since last May, following the latest incident. She urged Stockholm to “tame its ultras [radicals].”
Since the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine in 2022, Russian diplomatic buildings have been frequently subjected to vandalism and harassment.
In February, two pro-Ukraine activists in France received eight-month home arrest sentences after throwing three makeshift liquid nitrogen bombs at the Russian consulate in Marseilles. Moscow denounced the punishment as too lenient for what they described as an “attempt to commit a terrorist act.”
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