Foreign military exercises in the Baltic Sea area increased in recent years actually led by the Russians

Thursday, 15 August 2013
The number of foreign military exercises in the Baltic Sea has increased in recent years, according to the Swedish Armed Forces. Russia leads the way with the increase in the exercises and in now planning to carried out one that will involve 13 000 men, Sweden is ready incase they stray into its territorial area.
Radio Sweden reports on the issue on Wednesday and it follows the initial reports some months ago in which Swedish military was accused of napping while the Russians exercised on Swedish borders targeting Swedish targets while Sweden stayed docile and failed to react.

However, according to Anders Silwer of the Swedish Armed Forces, the threats to Sweden has not changed. This means that despite the increased exercises, Sweden remain at peace and is not worried that it could be attacked.

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"We see no immediate increase risk of threat against Sweden, we see an increased long-term trend," he said to radio Sweden.
In terms of how wide spread it looks, "there are two ways to compare. One is the Cold War high activity system which sees exercises every day. Compared to today we see perhaps high activity two to three times a month. If we contrast, this to five and six years, them we saw such activity a few times a year."

In recent years, the number of foreign military exercises around the Baltic Sea increased. An example is the upcoming major Russian military exercise with 13,000 personnel called Zapad, meaning the West.

It's not the first time Russia has made such so called great exercise, but this time the Swedish defence is programmed to be particularly active, with flight operations to insist on the limits of the Russians. They should not stray into Swedish territorial area otherwise Sweden will make its presence known. The Swedes could get nervous and make their presence known with some physical motions.

The reason for this is that Sweden will not take the blame again for similar situation that occurred in the high-profile event at last Easter when Russian bombers flew unannounced around Swedish territorial area while the Swedish military failed to prepare.

However, Anders Silwer of the Swedish Armed Forces says that the Zapad exercise should not be construed as a threat.
by Scancomark.com Team

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