Monkey emoji holding one eye, Twitter messages about “Nazis” in Ukraine, wry-contemplative smileys, quarrels with ministers. Many people can recognize this type of message from various social media and online comment fields.
In this case, however, it is the Russian embassy in Sweden that is behind the wording. He writes L’Espressowho was the first to mention the somewhat atypical way of expressing himself in diplomacy.
Most of the posts on the Russian embassy account – with nearly 4,500 followers – consist of the so-called “Retweeting” of news and official statements from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
However, some of the posts are written in Swedish: they often attack Swedish politics or Swedish foreign minister Ann Linde in a seemingly sarcastic and witty way.
OBJECTIVE: Many of the Twitter messages make fun of Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde. Photo: REUTERS / Eduardo Munoz
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Sarcastic posts have appeared recently, according to Expressen.
In one of the posts, the embassy suggests that the Swedish Competence Center for Ammunition and Mine clearance (SWEDEC) has been to Ukraine to lay mines.
Since 2018, SWEDEC @forvarsmakten has been training Ukrainian units 💬 “… to create minefields …” 🤔
– Russian Embassy, SWE (@RusEmbSwe) September 20, 2022
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– We have taken note of what is written, the head of communication of SWEDEC, Daniel Winberg told the newspaper.
Swedish Total Defense Research Institute (FOI) researcher Ola Svenonius believes Twitter messages are impersonal.
Photo: Holger Ellgaard / Wikimedia Commons
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– They feel almost impersonal, Svenonius tells Expressen. He particularly emphasizes the use of dots in messages.
The researcher believes that one goes through the Twitter accounts of Russian embassies in other countries to get an idea of what is happening on the Russian side.
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