The war between Russia and NATO could start over a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea that has enormous strategic value, writes focus.de.
It is about the island of Gotland, which is defined as a “huge aircraft carrier in the Baltic Sea”. With its central location, it brings with it many military advantages.
Sweden is also aware of the island's strategic importance. The country's army chief said that “whoever controls Gotland controls the Baltic Sea." If Putin invades Gotland, he could threaten NATO countries from the sea. This would be the end of peace and stability in the northern regions.
The Baltic Sea has long been a hot point of contact between NATO and Russia. Pipelines were blown up there, and Moscow's latest provocation is serious. Russia has announced that it will move its maritime border. The draft decree was then deleted from the website of the Russian military department without further details.
This is happening against the background of the full-scale war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine for the third year. Russian President Vladimir Putin is interested in creating a geographic advantage in the region, especially after the admission of Finland and Sweden to NATO.
Putin wants to intimidate and signal that his country has returned to its former strength despite all the losses in Ukraine. The signals that Moscow sends are contradictory. On the one hand, Putin says that he has no intention of attacking NATO (he claimed the same for Ukraine), and on the other hand, Russia is conducting nuclear exercises and creating laws to move its borders, which is a direct provocation against European countries.
A proposal by the Russian Defense Ministry to review maritime borders in the eastern Baltic Sea was deleted from an official website yesterday after causing confusion and concern among NATO members Finland, Sweden, Lithuania and Estonia. The official Defense Ministry draft said that Soviet-era border measurements in 1985 used mid-20th-century nautical charts and did not correspond to more modern cartographic coordinates. However, the proposal was deleted from the official website where it was published. In its place was a single message that read: "Draft deleted," without giving any further details.