Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced his intention, together with his NATO partners, to “defend” the Swedish island of Gotland.

He stated this in an interview with the Financial Times (FT).

As the publication reports Kristersson’s words, Stockholm intends to strengthen the defense of the island due to the active militarization of the Russian Federation.

“This is one of the obvious issues to be discussed with our new allies in NATO.

Gotland has always been important... and this is one of many topics that we will discuss,” Kristersson responded to a journalist who asked whether Stockholm considered it necessary to fortify the island.

The head of the Cabinet also admitted that Sweden has only a small military presence on Gotland, which the leaders of the NATO Baltic and Scandinavian countries constantly call the weak point of the alliance.

As FT clarifies, the island, located in the middle of the Baltic Sea, is often referred to as a “huge aircraft carrier”, which is “considered a key vulnerability for NATO in the confrontation with Russia.”

“There are many questions related to how we should allocate our resources and what to pay special attention to.

And of course, anything related to the Baltic Sea is an obvious candidate here.

This includes presence on Gotland, but also surveillance and submarine capabilities,” Kristersson said.

According to Financial Times journalists, after the Kingdom of Sweden joins NATO, allegedly due to Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, the situation on the island of Gotland will change.

“Gotland and Sweden's membership in NATO change the balance of power.

This means that strategic control of the Baltic Sea will return to NATO.

And Russia understands this very well,” Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins told the Financial Times last week.

The island of Gotland is considered a strategically important point for control of the Baltic.

It is located at the crossroads of shipping routes and hosts the Visby naval base.

In 2016, Sweden re-established its military presence on the island, which was actively welcomed by the United States.

According to Ben Hodges, then commander of US Army Europe, “no island is as important as Gotland.”

He noted that Sweden took this step allegedly because of the threat from Russia.

The island later hosted NATO exercises, and in January 2022, Sweden deployed additional special forces to defend Gotland, calling it a response “to the worsening tensions between Russia and Ukraine.”

According to the Financial Times, Sweden, as part of NATO, can become a logistics center, as well as a point for the transfer of alliance troops.

According to the publication, the kingdom's membership in the alliance provides new opportunities for supplies and reinforcements by sea, which will strengthen the defense of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

As journalists explain, this is due to the fact that the alliance will have the island of Gotland at its disposal.

  • Raising the Swedish flag at NATO headquarters

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  • © Geert Vanden Wijngaert

Subsequently, Kristersson, in an interview with Politico, called the potential deployment of troops in the Baltic region a “very natural” option and promised to provide full support to the Baltic countries, which have become Sweden's NATO allies.

The prime minister also noted that the European states that are part of the bloc need to build “a fairly strong defense, and not just hope that the United States will provide it and pay for it.”

Political context

Let us remind you that on March 7, the US State Department announced that the protocol on Sweden’s accession to NATO came into force.

On the same day, the kingdom became a member of the bloc, and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson promised to respect the values ​​of the alliance, as well as “strive for unity, solidarity and shared responsibility.”

Immediately before joining NATO, conversations began in Sweden about possible military action.

In particular, the government of the kingdom gave instructions to update instructions to residents in case of war.

As noted by the Minister of Civil Defense Karl-Oskar Bohlin, the need for this is due to “the serious situation with security policy and Sweden’s upcoming membership in NATO.”

The Swedish Cabinet of Ministers called on residents of the country to stock up on canned food, water, medicine and a radio before a possible “armed conflict,” writes the portal Sud Ouest.

  • Swedish troops on Gotland

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  • © Bezhav Mahmoud / Swedish Armed Forces / TT

Journalists also recall the call for the Swedes to “morally prepare for war” by the Commander-in-Chief of the Swedish Armed Forces, Mikael Büden, who in January thus alarmed some of his compatriots.

He believes that residents of Sweden, which recently joined NATO, need to think about how “prepared they are for a Russian attack.”

After joining the alliance, the Swedish prime minister expressed concern about the rapid pace of Russian rearmament and considered this a threat to other countries of the alliance.

“It (Russia.

- RT

) surprised the West by the fact that it (rearms.

- RT

) faster than we, perhaps, expected at first.

And we must respond to this,” he said.

In turn, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said that NATO associations “will operate” in the kingdom, but Stockholm does not want permanent bloc bases on its territory.

"Possesses significant threats"

As Konstantin Blokhin, an employee of the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted in an interview with RT, the Swedish authorities, in particular the Prime Minister of the Kingdom, with their hints and direct statements about the Russian threat to Gotland and Sweden, are trying to justify the Kingdom’s entry into the North Atlantic Alliance and an increase in defense spending. 

“Kristersson’s statement is aimed at justifying Sweden’s integration into NATO, otherwise why would the country join a military alliance if there is no threat... Therefore, the authorities are preparing the population for a possible war with Russia for territories.

The population must be prepared for adversity in order to now spend more on defense, on its military-industrial complex.

This is deliberately incited hysteria,” Blokhin is convinced. 

According to the expert, in this way Stockholm wants to meet the “NATO standard.”

“There are fewer and fewer undecided neutral countries, and we must choose a side.

It is clear that Sweden, being in the zone of Western influence, will join NATO.

The essence of the alliance is to contain Russia, so the imaginary Russian threat has become a priority of Stockholm’s foreign policy,” he explained.

According to the analyst, Gotland was chosen for militarization because of its location in the Baltic Sea.

In turn, political scientist Vladimir Shapovalov, a member of the board of the Russian Association of Political Science, in a conversation with RT, called Gotland “an important strategic point.”

“Of course, the deployment of NATO infrastructure here poses significant threats to Russia.

The purpose of NATO plans may be transit passenger and trade routes between St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad.

And this is unacceptable from the point of view of Russian interests.

The Russian response will be to strengthen defense resources on the borders with this region,” Shapovalov said.

  • Gotland

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  • © RPBMedia

However, according to him, these plans pose an even greater threat to the Swedish people, who are “being drawn into a confrontation with a nuclear superpower.”

“This will definitely affect the standard of living of the Swedish population, and for the worse, since the kingdom has become a participant in military escalation for the first time in 200 years.

Now resources will be siphoned from the kingdom to increase tensions and participate in the arms race,” the analyst added.

At the same time, Russia really does not threaten NATO countries, Shapovalov noted.

Thus, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the West’s statements that the Baltic states, Sweden and Finland could be “next” after the special operation in Ukraine absurd.

“This kind of statement from Western politicians and government officials, including Swedish ones, is nothing more than a desire to manipulate their own public opinion, increasing hysteria.

By creating an image of the enemy, the heads of NATO countries control their society,” the expert is confident.

Sweden, according to the analyst, is “running ahead of the NATO locomotive” and seeks to show the “Washington master” its zeal. 

“As soon as the kingdom joined NATO, it lost its sovereignty, and now Washington speaks through the mouth of Swedish politicians.

It is important for the United States to increase pressure on Russia in the northwest; it is for this purpose that Sweden was included in NATO,” Shapovalov explained. 

For his part, Candidate of Political Sciences, Associate Professor at the Academy of Labor and Social Relations Pavel Feldman noted in an RT commentary that Sweden, which recently joined the North Atlantic Alliance, is coming to the understanding that by joining the NATO bloc hostile to Russia, Stockholm has identified itself as a as a potential enemy of Moscow.

“The Swedes took great risks, but did not receive reliable security guarantees from the Americans in return.

And now it has begun to dawn on them that in the event of an armed conflict, Washington will not protect them.

Now Sweden is forced to urgently increase its military potential.

In the near future, the island of Gotland will be militarized.

However, Russia has already announced response measures to Sweden’s accession to NATO and is ready to repel possible provocations from its fortified positions,” Feldman concluded.