Sweden is set to bring hundreds of Cold War-era nuclear bunkers out of mothballs as tensions with Russia in the Baltic are ratcheted up another notch.
More than 60,000 bunkers were established after 1945 to protect Swedes in the event of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union.
Although Sweden has always remained neutral and never developed nuclear weapons of its own, Stockholm always feared an attack by Moscow.
After the fall of the Soviet Union those fears diminished and most of the bunkers were mothballed.
But now, with President Putin rattling his sabres and cranking up Russia’s military build-up around the Baltic – especially in the Kaliningrad enclave – Sweden’s Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) has decided to carry out a review of the bunkers.
Sweden, which is not a NATO member, is also reintroducing military service, which was scrapped in 2010.
In September permanent troops were stationed for the first time on the island of Gotland in the Baltic.
Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist said it was a sign to Moscow as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania coming under increasing pressure from the Russian Bear.
The MSB’s head of civil protection, Mats Berglund, told Sverige Radio the 350 shelters on Gotland would be among the first to be checked.
The island’s bunkers have room for more than 30,000 people, although Gotland’s population is around twice that figure.
The MSB uses a distinctive orange and blue logo, with the word skyddsrum (shelter), to mark the bunkers, which offer protection against an initial nuclear blast, radiation and prolonged chemical or germ warfare.
Sweden has reintroduced military conscription over conflict fears in Eastern Europe as Putin continues to prepare Russia for war.
The Nordic country’s government approved plans to bring the system back amid difficulties filling the ranks on a voluntary basis.
Sweden mothballed compulsory military service in 2010, but military activity in the Baltic region has increased since, in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Putin’s military build-up in the region is being carried out under the umbrella of his Growler missile system – which he calls the S-400 Triumf.
There have also been reports of airspace violations by Russia’s military aircraft in the Baltics and a military buildup in Kaliningrad, which sits across the Baltic Sea from Sweden.
In 2015, Sweden’s military expenditure dropped to 1.1 percent of its gross domestic product, down from 2.5 percent in 1991 as the Cold War came to an end, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Sweden also said it was going to increase military spending by 15 per cent because of Russian aggression.
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