Sweden Revives Cold-War Military Forces to Help Shield the Baltic From Putin’s Russia
Abandoned in peacetime, Gotland has emerged as a strategic perch at the center of the Baltic as the Russian threat strains nerves
Karl Engelbrektson, commander of the Swedish Army, at the Gotland Regiment base near Visby, Sweden, March 25.
Photographer: Mikael Sjoberg/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Sweden’s top army officer has been waiting a long time to get back to the windswept Baltic Sea island of Gotland.
Karl Engelbrektson was a unit commander on Gotland in 2005 when Sweden withdrew its military from the crucial perch in the center of the Baltic, taking advantage of the post-Cold War peace. Even then, he thought the move was ill-judged.