Russian threat: the neutral north is arming

The arming of the Swedes is just one example of how alarmed the Nordic countries are about the threat from their big neighbor Russia.

Finland, Norway and Denmark are also investing more and more in their security architecture and relying on military cooperation.

"Before Russian troops marched into Crimea, nobody believed that European borders would be called into question," said Ian Anthony, director of the European security program at the Stockholm international Peace Research Institute (Sipri), to WELT. "But now it's something that Europe's governments are always thinking about."