Those Plucky Swedes

A small but powerful news article in English brought to our attention by Helga Brekkan, the Stockholm-based documentary filmmaker making a movie about Grigory Pasko.

Here’s a short version: The Russians have arranged a feel-good junket to the tropical paradise that is St. Petersburg for countries standing in the way of the Nord Stream pipeline, complete with wining and dining and caviaring and helicopter rides along part of the land portion of the pipeline route. At the last minute, the Swedes said “no thånks” and will not be attending this “conference”, which has come as a complete shock to the Russians.

Explanatory comments from Swedes in the article state that since the Swedish government still hasn’t decided on whether to approve the project, it’s kinda inappropriate to go, and besides, the issue is going to be decided on its environmental merits, not political ones, so there’s really no point in being invited to take expensive helicopter rides designed to woo the politicians.

Sweden’s getting plucky!