Sweden’s membership of the NATO alliance poses massive new challenges to Russia in its bid to dominate its old Baltic territories.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has long harbored an obsessive grudge against NATO expansion.
He’s claimed the invasion of Ukraine was a way of preventing the growth of the alliance close to Russia’s borders and threatening its security.
But in the end, the Russian president seems to have achieved the exact opposite.
On Tuesday, Hungary’s parliament voted to approve Sweden’s NATO membership in a move that may be exactly what the West needs to counter Putin and his underhand tactics.
Its membership brings to an end its decades-old military nonalignment policy. It also means the post-Cold War era, where Sweden reduced the size of its military and sought better trade and diplomatic ties with Russia, is closed.
NATO officials have long feared that the Baltic region in northeastern Europe is one of its most vulnerable areas, and if Russia wins in Ukraine, its next move could be to launch an attack on the region.
Oscar Jonsson, a defense specialist at the Swedish Defence University, told Business Insider, that Sweden would provide NATO with a large range of new options for striking back.
« Sweden will bring the strategic depth needed for launching air operations and missiles against Russian operations, but also be a difficult target across the Baltic Sea, » he said.
« Moreover, Sweden brings an already interoperable Armed Forces that are highly competent in terms of technology and training although not in great quantity. »
Sweden’s membership of NATO means the alliance is the dominant force in the Baltic Sea.
For hundreds of years, the region has been a vital corridor for the Russian navy, Nima Khorrami, a Research Associate at the Arctic Institute, told Business Insider
He said that Sweden’s « extensive coastline and numerous islands provide NATO with a unique advantage in navigating and controlling » the sea, and curtail potential Russian naval operations from its bases in the Baltic.
