‘Strategically erratic’ Putin trumps Cold War danger, Sweden’s new military boss says

We live in dangerous times, even more so than during the Cold War, Sweden’s incoming defense chief said Monday.

“I would say that it is [more dangerous],” General Michael Claesson, who will take over as the supreme commander of the Swedish Armed Forces on Tuesday, told local media.

“There are many similarities, but at the same time it is in various ways more unpredictable than the Cold War,” he added. “There were other mechanisms and dialogue at that time.”

He called Russia “strategically erratic” and said the Kremlin posed “a variety of different types of threats,” including “conventional military violence” and hybrid warfare, which he described as “exploiting vulnerabilities in society.”

Sweden applied to join NATO together with Finland shortly after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 and became the alliance’s 32^nd member in March.

Russia has repeatedly threatened to attack NATO and its allies in recent years. Moscow’s top diplomat said earlier this month that it is “fully ready” for war with the alliance’s Arctic members, of which Sweden is one.

Sweden’s outgoing defense chief Micael Bydén warned in May that Russian leader Vladimir Putin “has both eyes” on the Swedish island of Gotland.

“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.