”Martin Kragh är ett demokratiskt problem”

Hur Aftonbladet gav spridning åt en rysk påverkansoperation

Abstract

On 7 February 2019 the largest evening paper in the Nordic countries, Aftonbladet, published an article on the scholar Martin Kragh, head of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs in Stockholm and researcher at Uppsala University. Kragh, according to Aftonbladet, was allegedly working for “a covert state intelligence organization in Great Britain,” and he should therefore be investigated “by Swedish media and the security police.” The problem with Aftonbladet’s claims is that they are false, and that they with a high degree of confidence had their origin in a Russian influence operation against the British think tank Institute for Statecraft. Using quantitative and qualitative method, this article analyses the origins and diffusion of the campaign internationally and in Sweden as an informational cascade.