Liberalistic Defiance During a Pandemic

This chapter is an analysis of RT and Sputnik’s coverage of Sweden with regard to the Covid-19 pandemic. The results of the analysis show how the Russian state media used the pandemic to denigrate Sweden, highlight weaknesses and shortcomings in its social fabric, and expose its leadership as incompetent and the hypocritical self-perception and self-promotion of the Swedish nation as a well-functioning country with trusted institutions and loyal citizens as a myth. This narrative, which was prompted by the pandemic, during which the Swedish authorities embarked on a different path, and to many a controversial strategy, shows how a global crisis might affect disinformation and the construction of harmful narratives. More importantly, however, it demonstrates that the narratives were similar in content and format to the other news themes, which strengthens the thesis about disinformation as everyday practice. Even at times of crisis, the harmful narratives remain the same. We must therefore be cautious about talking in terms of disinformation “campaigns”, which would indicate that the disinformation is temporary and a result of external events.