Pavel Gamov (born 20 November 1989) is a Russian-born former Swedish politician who was a member of the

Riksdag The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...

, first as a member of the

Sweden Democrats The Sweden Democrats ( sv , Sverigedemokraterna ; SD ) is a nationalist and right-wing populist political party in Sweden. As of 2022, it is the largest member of Sweden's right-wing governing bloc to which it provides confidence and supply, a ...

and then as an independent.

Career

Gamov was born in Moscow before moving to Sweden with his family. He became active in the

in the late 2000s. Gamov was the SD group leader in the municipal council of Uppsala municipality. It was later noticed Gamov had also had some contacts with the National Democrats as a teenager, however Gamov claimed to have distanced himself from the party and described himself as "politically immature" at the time. Politically, he describes himself as a national conservative. He was elected to the Riksdag for the SD in

2014 Swedish general election General elections were held in Sweden on 14 September 2014 to elect all 349 seats in the Riksdag, alongside elections for the 21 county councils, and 290 municipal assemblies. The centre-right Alliance for Sweden coalition (comprising the Mod ...

and was a member of the Riksdag's EU Committee. Since 2020, Gamov has been an employee of the Swedish alternative news service ''Exakt24.''

Trip to Russia

In 2017, Gamov made a controversial trip to Russia to observe the

2017 Moscow municipal elections The 2017 Moscow municipal elections took place in Moscow on 10 September 2017. Elections took place for deputies of the municipal councils in 124 of 125 districts of Moscow and in one administrative okrug, for a total of 1,502 seats, which were c ...

, despite being advised not to. According to ''

Aftonbladet ''Aftonbladet'' (, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish daily newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. History and profile The newspaper was founded by Lars Johan H ...

'' the trip was paid for by a close associate of Vladimir Putin.SD-toppen Pavel Gamov utreds för kränkningar
/ref> Journalist Chang Frick of the Swedish

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

newspaper '' Nyheter Idag'' accompanied Gamov on the trip. During their time in Moscow, Frick accused Gamov of getting drunk, calling sex workers to his hotel room and demanding that the host country pay for his bar check. ''

'' also claimed that Gamov behaved in a threatening manner during the visit. The subsequent media attention led to calls from within the Sweden Democrats party for Gamov to resign and SD group leader Mattias Karlsson stated there would be an investigation into the incident. Gamov subsequently quit the party and sat as an independent before losing his seat in the 2018 election.

References

Members of the Riksdag from the Sweden Democrats 1989 births Living people Russian emigrants to Sweden {{Sweden-politician-stub