Putin has ‘both eyes’ on Gotland, warns Sweden’s army chief
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has his eyes on the Swedish island of Gotland, warned Sweden’s defense chief Micael Bydén, Politico reports.
Gotland, Sweden's largest island and comparable in size to the smallest U.S. state of Rhode Island, is strategically located in the middle of the Baltic Sea — between Stockholm and Russia's Kaliningrad exclave.
The Russian defense ministry announced a plan Tuesday to expand the country's territorial waters in the Baltic Sea near its maritime border with Lithuania and Finland, sparking international concern.
“I'm sure that Putin even has both eyes on Gotland. Putin's goal is to gain control of the Baltic Sea,” Bydén, Sweden's supreme commander of the armed forces, told newspapers of the German editorial network RND.
“If Russia takes control and seals off the Baltic Sea, it would have an enormous impact on our lives — in Sweden and all other countries bordering the Baltic Sea. We can’t allow that,” Bydén said. "The Baltic Sea must not become Putin's playground where he terrifies NATO members.”
Russian shadow tankers have been a recent presence in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone off of Gotland’s eastern coast. The estimated 1,400-ship fleet operates outside the official maritime sector and isn’t officially part of any armed forces, so NATO has little power to act. Last month, Sweden said the European Commission would look into ways to deal with Russia’s shadow oil fleet in its next package of sanctions.
After being demilitarized in 2005, Sweden re-introduced permanent troops to Gotland in 2016, following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Sweden also became NATO’s newest member in March — meaning it is covered by the alliance's Article 5 guarantee that all other members come to each other's defense if they are attacked.
