Sweden has been a NATO partner since 1994 (photo: NATO)

On Thursday, Russia’s ambassador to Sweden, Viktor Tatarintsev, hit out in an interview with the Dagens Nyheter daily at what he called an “aggressive propaganda campaign” by Swedish media.

“Russia is often described as an attacker who only thinks of conducting wars and threatening others. But I can guarantee that Sweden, which is an alliance-free nation, is not part of any military plans by Russian authorities. Sweden is not a target for our armed troops,” he said.

However, he underlined that if Sweden were to abandon its alliance neutrality and join the Western military organization [NATO], Russia would adopt “counter measures”.