Sweden pushed onto Baltic chessboard

The EU-Russian summit in Stockholm has prompted some reflections on Sweden’s foreign and defence policy in the Svenska Dagbladet: “Now that the Lisbon Treaty is about to enter into force, requiring all the member countries to come to the aid of any member attacked by a third country, Sweden has changed its tack. Henceforth, should any Baltic state be the target of armed aggression, Stockholm will be bound to intervene militarily.” This U-turn comes as Russia flexes its military muscles in the Baltic, notes the Swedish daily: in September, Moscow carried out its biggest military drill in ten years, based on the scenario that NATO is attacking Russia. “These exercises do not constitute a threat yet,” opines the paper, but “the big question is how Russia will behave in future, what with a new generation of Russians raised in an anti-Western spirit.”