Defending Borders Does Not Mean Russia is a Threat – Envoy to Sweden

The West's aggressive anti-Russian rhetoric and constant speculation of a "potential Russian threat" has led its neighbors to believe in the likelihood of an attack; Russia, however, reiterates that it has no plans for any kind of an assault, but is ready to ward off any threat to its borders.

The aggressive anti-Russian propaganda campaign in the Swedish media, which often describes Russia as a “striker who only thinks of waging war and threatening others” has resulted in a gradually growing number of Swedes who support joining NATO.

Although the majority still thinks that traditionally neutral or non-aligned Sweden should stay out of the alliance, the statistics are somewhat upsetting.

Russia's ambassador to Sweden, Viktor Tatarintsev, has yet again reiterated that Sweden is not on any military agenda of the Russian armed forces.

“Who is threatening whom? Take the NATO and US military budgets. Only the US [annual military budget] is 750 billion dollars, while Russia’s is 60 billion, i.e. 13 times less than that of the US. You can draw your own conclusions about who is the strongest,” the diplomat said in an interview with the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

Commenting on so-called Russian aggression in the Baltic region, often used by the countries of the region as a pretext for a plea for NATO help, the diplomat said that the statistic clearly reveal that NATO aircraft spend four times as much time in the air above the Baltics as their Russian counterparts.

“The Baltic States have insisted on the permanent monitoring of their airspace,” he said. “It began with three planes, now they want to have twelve. There are three thousand elite soldiers who can engage in war. It is a real sign that they want to build a platform for launching a conflict that can become something bigger. This is a dangerous tendency.”

The ambassador however warned that if Russia feels any threat emerging along its borders, it will be forced to respond. It will re-orientate its troops and missiles.

Any country that opts to join NATO should to be aware of the risks it is exposing itself to, he added.

The diplomat also stressed that Moscow has made every effort to start a dialogue with the Swedish authorities, but they opted to freeze all the contacts, which is unnatural for the neighboring countries.