RELATIONSHIPS WITH RUSSIA IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS IN THE SWEDISH PARTY SYSTEM
This article analyzes the changing role of the Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Sweden in the party system at the present stage in order to determine how this may affect the discussion of the issue of Sweden’s accession to NATO. It seems that this issue is a key one in political bilateral relations between Russia and Sweden, therefore, a change in the military-political status of Sweden may affect the state of Russian-Swedish relations. The study is based on the hypothesis that the state of bilateral relations depends on the result of the Swedish parliamentary elections. Based on the information from the analyzed literature, official party sources, electoral history and the results of sociological surveys, it is concluded that the reduction in the representation of the S/SAP over the past few decades does not allow them to play the role of the dominant force in the party system and forces them to constantly make political compromises that disappoint the traditional electorate. This means that the largest party - the opponent of Sweden’s accession to NATO - is reducing its ability to influence this issue.