We have been in the crosshairs of Russia for hundreds of years. We have had at least 15 major wars with them, that Finland even exists as a nation is because of those wars, it was the eastern half of Sweden. Both our nations are fully focused on the threat from the east, and always has been. We might be “neutral” but we are firmly in the western camp, just the other day we had air force drills together with US bombers over Sweden. We share our intelligence with NATO, even if it is denied.
Russia has always been an enemy. They practice nuclear bombing runs on Stockholm ffs.
As for strategic reasons, they want Gotland. That island is perfectly positioned in the Baltic Sea to set up an AA umbrella where the russians can cut of the baltic NATO forces from air support in the event of a conflict. That is just one example.
The sanctions are no joke. And while they didn’t deter action yet, it might be worth noting that they did work wonders in 2014 to prevent more violence back then.
Apparently the reason for not pulling them from SWIFT is due to that move greatly harming other European economies (like Germany, who relies on Russia for oil/gas). The sanctions just announced through yesterday are more potent than that move would be against Russia too. Sounds like Germany is the holdout on that front but they might cave and take the hit as a last resort.
Germany needs to grow some balls and take the hit to the economy. No one should be dependant on russian gas, there is so many wrongs there both political and environmental.
That seems easy to demand from outside Germany, but it might be asking a lot for the German public. And if they have other ways to better target Putin that is better anyhow. BUT they can still find ways to work with Germany to boot Russia from SWIFT in the future too. The powers that be seem to wanna keep that as an extra potent trump card.
Other than Germany, there is also Italy, where I come from, which is the 2nd most dependant country in EU from Russia gas. Let’s not forget “Londongrad”, for years UK was conveniently blind to hundreds of dirty billions from russian oligarchs and also France has its interests with Russia. The reality is that the biggest and more powerful EU contries didn’t want an escalatation mostly because they were in bed with Putin and he knew it. Add to all of this US in its weakest moment since decades, it was almost a when and not an if for a russian move. I expect some shit from the chinese also in the near future, western world is weak.
That’s good to know man. It’s just sad, why can’t these freaking manbabies just grow up, truly the wrong people are in charge of these countries unbelievable.
Yeah, Putin is a lot of things but stupid is not one of them. It’s not a coincidence these countries are dependent on Russia.
Two good things might come out of all this though, the move to better and greener energy sources should finally pick up the pace in more countries and now it’s just not about global warming but also a matter of national security. More renewable energy and less russian influence.
The “new” idea will be to get the gas from North Africa and Middle East, most likely, greener energy is slow because of burocracy (I have a full solar implant for my home and is quite widespread compared to 10 years ago, but it’s still a minor source overall).
One thing I’m curious about from your swedish perspective: why your country is in EU and not in NATO? Just curiosity.
Yeah, I hope we join NATO soon. There are elections in Sweden this year so I think this might actually happen now that people see what kind of “support” countries outside of NATO actually gets.
Sweden and Finland are linked in this also, whatever one does the other will follow. If Finland joins, so will we and vice versa.
Yeah I know it’s easy to sit here in Sweden and ask people to just stop using gas (this is not a thing here) since we have a lot of hydro power. I do think nuclear energy is a better option for you though, it’s very slow to get going though.
As for Sweden and NATO… Well, it’s about the neutrality. We have been a neutral country for a very long time, and it has kept us out of both world wars. During the cold war we had a huge military to ensure that neutrality, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union we demilitarized naively thinking the world was going to be a better place… This is obviously not the case and we are currently increasing the military capacity again. It has become obvious that the russians are quite insane and ironically they might push us into NATO.
The EU is for us more a matter of economy, trade and co-operation. But yes, that is not really being neutral either but I guess joining a full blown military alliance is considered “worse”.
Yeah, they threaten us all the time. Our navy and air force intercept russian forces all the time, they constantly poke at our borders. This diplomatic barking is par for the course sadly.
I hope they join NATO as soon as they can physically make this happen. I worry that Russia’s next step would be to go after these countries. I’m terrified for everyone over there.
Italy had nuclear until a popular vote against it after Chernobyl, like many other countries. Which is nonsense, because we buy energy from France, which is next to us and the biggest EU nuclear power (3rd in world after US and Russia), so the possible risk is still there, but you know, people was scared back in the day and that’s it. Also in the long run, nuclear fission is too toxic for the world anyway, the country is already full of nuclear waste from the production between 60s-80s. We were among the pioneers countries of idroelectric central at the beginnings of '900, but the possible sources are already exploited in the Alps, then we have not much gas (and we guiltily dowgraded the internal production because in the past our prime minister was best buddy with Putin, how ironic) or fossiles, so outside home solar plants and wind power, there are not many alternatives to external sources. They are speaking about reopening carbon centrals, lol, we go back instead of forward.
Thanks for the info, I know some swedish history and your tradition of diplomacy (like during WW2), but I was curios because of this strange EU but not NATO. Curiously, Norway is the contrary, they are NATO members, but not EU. Historically Russia has always been wary and annoyed by Finland (which was a part of the old Kingdom of Sweden) position at the back end of the Baltic, near their Kaliningrad enclave.
Doesn’t Chernobyl have exactly what one would need to make dirty bombs?
Not that they would need that, being a nuclear super power. But couldn’t they sell the ingredients to others who may be very motivated to use something like that against other countries, that Putin would be fine with taking a big hit that he can’t be directly blamed for?
Yeah, the panic dismantling of nuclear power affected us too. Somehow a lot of people can’t understand the difference in security of crappy Soviet tech in the 80’s and modern nuclear plants… At least France is going to expand their nuclear capacity greatly, so hopefully you can buy from them. It’s just a matter of time where nuclear and renewables will be more than enough, maybe this crisis is the push that is needed.
Nah, they could dig shit up like that from their own reactors if they wanted. Chernobyl just happens to be located right next to a major attack route from Belarus towards Kiev, it’s on the way so to speak with major roads etc.
Could have been as benign (as benign as Russian could be right now) as secure this volatile asset so it can’t be used by desperate non-state or state actors for nefarious purposes later on. Could be as vile as being a component of Putins threat of retribution. Like if NATO gets involved we’ll sabotage Chernobyl. A way to make a nuclear threat without threatening missiles.
Who knows what Putin is thinking anyway. He’s crossed a line he can’t uncross even if he does stop at the Ukraine and doesn’t trigger a bigger war. Even if the Ukraine doesn’t turn into an insurgency hell hole for Russia or their future puppet government they’re international pariahs now. There’s been a lot of political goodwill to be made in Europe, and the US, in pretending Russia is just misunderstood and can be dealt with. See UK banking relations, German gas etc. they’ve been handled with kid gloves for decades because of it. Now it’ll be political suicide to be anything less than actively economically hostile to Russia in most of the world. If Putin thinks Russia was treated unfairly before he’ll get a shock now with all his political sympathizers driven into hiding.
There’s no endgame here for him. He’s going to be economically isolated until the Russians are so sick of him they kill him. Or he’ll start a bigger war and “accidentally” catch a drone missile with his face. He’s a dead man walking now.
I don’t think so green energy is on the rise sure. But imitate measurement has to be taken if Russia cuts off our power (hi I’m from Germany) I could honestly see a return of nuclear power. Nothing is worse than a major energy shortage. Or infrastructure is depending on it.