Leaving SD after Expressen's scam drive

Published 29 May 2024 at 18.44

Domestic. Alexander Edbom is leaving his job at the Sweden Democrats' communications department after Expressen hanged him for “glorifying Putin and spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda”. To support this thesis, Expressen has, among other things, taken joke posts out of context.

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“So chaotic in Ukraine right now, why aren't their armies backing down to de-escalate a little? :/”

That's how Alexander Edbom, an employee of SD's communications department, tweeted in 2022 as a satirical comment on the Koran riots that shook Sweden at the time. Then the police in several places chose to “de-escalate” the situation by backing away from the rioters.

Now the comment is being used by Expressen's David Baas as evidence that Edbom is spreading “Russian propaganda”.

Baas also mentions in his article on Wednesday that Alexander Edbom about ten years ago wrote critical comments about NATO and the then new regime in Ukraine. Edbom then also stated that there was no reasonable alternative to Putin and that there would be chaos in the country without him and his party. In addition, at this time, Edbom is said to have linked to articles in RT and Sputnik, according to Expressen.

Edbom, who himself was born in Russia, has now quit SD.

– He has resigned and no longer works with us, says Oskar Cavalli-Björkman, press manager at SD, to Expressen.

Expressen agrees
To Samnytt says Alexander Edbom that he will sue Expressen for defamation.

– Yes, I want this to have consequences. They shouldn't just be able to lie everywhere, he says.

About the posts he wrote about ten years ago, he says:

– I was non-political then and worked on something completely different . I wasn't really interested in politics then, Alexander Edbom tells Samnytt.

David Baas has not responded to requests for comments, according to Samnytt.

< p lang="sv" dir="ltr">And if you see the tweet in that context, it's clear that I thought there was nothing strange about Ukraine having to defend itself.

That is, Expressen has taken a tweet and turned the message around by omitting context.

— Alexander Edbom (@alexanderedbom) May 29, 2024