Paul Goble
As relations between Moscow and the West have deteriorated in the course of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government has been focusing on islands belonging to Western countries as possible targets for attack, especially those with complicated legal and demographic situations (see EDM, June 11). Earlier this year, Moscow devoted particular attention to the Svalbard islands, a Norwegian archipelago in the North Atlantic whose military use is regulated by international treaty, and to Gotland, a Swedish possession in the Baltic Sea, which Stockholm had earlier unilaterally demilitarized (see EDM, May 30, August 15). Now, however, Norway and Sweden have adopted a harder line in both places, with the former rejecting Moscow’s plans to increase Russia’s presence on its territory and the latter remilitarizing its strategically located island (Window on Eurasia, July 11, September 8; see EDM, August 15). As a result, Russian officials have shifted their attention to the Åland Islands. Russian commentators suggest that its even more complicated situation could allow Moscow to exploit what they see as potential Western divisions about defending this archipelago.
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