According to media reports from Russian news agency Aviapro, Sweden is ready to launch military strikes on its military bases.
“Even though Sweden’s involvement in the armed conflicts of the last century has been minimizing and the country’s defense industry is at a relatively low level, Swedish television has announced that the country’s army is ready to strike at Russian military bases using missiles. With a great scope, which caused frank bewilderment among professionals,” reads the article from Aviapro.
It goes on to states, “What exactly caused such an aggressive attitude by Sweden against Russia is unknown, but any provocation from Sweden will receive an immediate response from Russia”.
After looking closely at the Russian message including its source, it is found that the information in fact comes from a Swedish information portal and comes with a very different tone. The Swedish report elaborates on Sweden’s new defense plan, which includes an enhancement of its budget as well as an increase in its army’s combat capability.
“The number of submarines in the country’s fleet has increased from four to five. Today’s seven corvettes have been preserved, but two were modified, and the Swedish Government replaced two. The ships had also upgraded with a robotic air defense system. The West Coast will have its air defense battalion. In the future, the Air Force will have 80-100 fighter jets, both the old Gripen C / D model and 60 new E models. The aircraft must also be equipped with long-range missiles to land. Such long-range weapons allow strikes on bases in Russia,” reads the SVT report.
The only time it actually mentions Russia is when it talks of the various new weapon systems that it intends to acquire and their comparison with Russian equivalents.
“We will purchase additional hunting robots and new sensors. Aircraft must also be able to be equipped with long-range robots for ground purposes. Such long-range weapons provide an opportunity to strike bases in Russia,” states the article.
For some reason, the Russian media interpreted the Swedish announcement as a threat to its military bases.
For some reason, patriotism has taken different turn in the Russian article with Aviapro’s article saying, “Russia has air defense systems capable of shooting down Swedish planes over the territory of its own country. It is not clear where Stockholm got such aggression. Still, it is evident that this was done against the background of Swedish citizens’ anger at the country’s armed forces’ insufficient funding – politicians are simply solving defense problems through propaganda, nothing more.”
It would appear that when the Russians have no enemy they want to create one for themselves.
