Sweden breaks military contacts with Russia

Russia continues its military escalation with threat of nuclear arming its ships in the Baltic sea. But the Russian fleet is weak and old, according to a report of the Swedish defense. In the meantime, the Alliance government has suspended its military contacts with Russia until further developments, reported Dagens Nyheter.

The British paper The Times revealed Russia's plan to increase its military capacity in the Baltic sea by nuclear arming its submarines and other vessels, apparently as a response to United States plans to set up robot defense shields in Poland.

"The Russian military doctrine has a strong emphasis on nuclear arms which is naturally worrisome, after all it goes against our desire to reduce nuclear armament", commented Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bild.

But Russia's Baltic fleet is in bad shape, according to a defense research report. After the demise of the Soviet Union, its fleet has been reduced to two submarines, of which one is under repair and two sweepers. Most of the ships are from 1980s.

FOI researcher Ingmar Oldberg says however that the Russian escalation in the Baltic region does not mean increased threat to Sweden, but on the contrary against Poland and the Baltic states. " But we must reconsider out judgment of Russia and our solidarity with the Baltic states via the EU also has to be re-evaluated", says Oldberg.

Sweden's reaction to Russia's attack of Georgia has been to suspend military exchange visits. It involves mainly meetings between high Russian and Swedish military officers. Some members of the Alliance government are in favour of breaking completely the exchange visits. The opposition Socialist Party agrees with the Alliance government's move to postpone the planned military exchange visits.
(Translated from DN's report,19 Aug. 2008)