REMINDERS OF a wicked world are multiplying at the Arvfurstens Palace in Stockholm, stately seat of Sweden’s foreign ministry. A bronze briefcase, bearing the initials RW, has for some years stood outside the front door. It honours Raoul Wallenberg, a young diplomat who used his country’s profitable—and at times shameful—tradition of neutrality to save thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary with Swedish “protection passes” he had crafted, before he vanished into the prisons of the Soviet Union. Of late, four large flags also adorn the stone-floored entrance hall. Three reflect Sweden’s proud self-image as a champion of free trade, development aid and international co-operation. These are the Swedish flag, the flag of the European Union and the United Nations standard. The fourth is new: the flag of NATO, the defence alliance that Sweden joined in March. The country was jolted out of 200 years of neutrality by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Economist