Finnish ex-minister and party leader on Russian propaganda trip

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The former party leader of the Green League and former labor minister Tarja Cronberg traveled at the expense of the Russian state to a propaganda conference in Kaliningrad, Expressen reports.

The review is made by Expressen in cooperation with Estonian, Lithuanian, German and independent Russian media as well as with Finnish Iltalehti.

The conference was organized at the end of April this year. It was arranged for the 300th anniversary of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who was born in Kaliningrad, then Königsberg.

Part of the conference was “The Baltic Platform”, which was previously revealed to be a Russian influence operation. The aim is to bring forward criticism of NATO and messages about how the Baltic Sea should be demilitarized according to leaked documents from Russia.

The conference was opened with a personal telegram from President Vladimir Putin. The video recording then shows how Cronberg and the other participants stand up for the Russian national anthem.

– First of all, I am currently researching Russia’s role in the nuclear weapons system, and I am writing a book about it. In such research, it is very important that I understand and know what is happening in Russia in matters of nuclear technology, comments Tarja Cronberg Expressen’s disclosure.

Cronberg is today a peace researcher at the Swedish institute Sipri and participated with the approval of Sipri’s management. Sipri director Dan Smith says they are aware of concerns about links between “The Baltic Platform” and the Kremlin.

– To clarify again, Tarja Cronberg’s participation in the conference was independent and she did not represent Sipri. She did not speak about environmental issues, but about Kantian issues during the session, says Dan Smith to Expressen.

Despite this, Cronberg is presented in the program as a representative of Sipri, Expressen shows, and the fact that it would be about the philosopher Immanuel Kant does not give much thought to Russia expert Martin Kragh.

– On the surface, the conference is about Immanuel Kant, but in fact it seems to be a lot about Russian foreign policy and security. Kant appears to be a fig leaf, says Kragh to Expressen.