Bloomberg: Sweden is building up its military contingent on the island of Gotland
Gotland has become an important strategic point on the Swedish border, Bloomberg reports. Terrified by the proximity to Russia, the NATO forces drove troops there, which changed the appearance of the tourist island. Local residents are outraged: the "occupation" by their own armed forces prevents them from living and working as usual.
Charlie Duxbury
The Swedish island of Gotland is a popular holiday destination. Recently, it has become an important strategic hub amid rising defense spending in NATO countries.
From the window of her office on the Suderby farm on the western tip of the Swedish island of Gotland, Evelyn McMenamin watches as yellow excavators from a construction company drive into a military facility across the street.
About 300 conscripts have already been stationed at the Toft base, compared to only 40 in 2022. Soon, the number of places at the base will at least double: she recently acquired a mansion next to the Suderbyun farm for additional accommodation. “They're constantly expanding," says McMenamin, 30. ”Sometimes it feels like we're being surrounded."
The island of Gotland is a favorite vacation destination for many Swedes, and its landscape — a combination of agricultural fields and windswept beaches — served as a source of inspiration for Oscar-winning director Ingmar Bergman. Travel companies usually wind down their winter operations as early as October, but this year construction workers, cafe and restaurant owners, and transport workers continue to benefit from hundreds of new military customers, even though the days are getting shorter.
Just ten years ago, the base had only a shooting range for reservists, and then only sporadically. Today, the terrain has been transformed: soldiers are honing their skills with artillery, trucks and tanks on the parade ground and the surrounding forest roads. The military buildup is a clear illustration of how billions of euros in new military spending are changing the familiar face of entire communities along NATO's eastern borders near Russia.
The island is an important strategic point in the middle of the Baltic Sea, from where it is possible to control air routes in the east-west corridor, as well as sea routes leading to the militarized exclave of Kaliningrad and the country's second largest city, St. Petersburg. For centuries, the Swedes, Danes and Germans fought over it, and in 1808 it was briefly occupied by Russia. During the Cold War, Gotland was home to thousands of Swedish soldiers, top-secret listening posts, and submarine harbors, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the island was demilitarized. Now Russia is threatening again, and Swedish troops are returning, transforming the economy and demographics of the long-time outpost (as Russian officials have repeatedly stressed, Moscow has no intention of threatening Europe and NATO. — Approx. InoSMI).
“The local regiment is really growing,— says local county governor Charlotte Petri Gornicka. ”The military presence in everyday life is becoming more noticeable."
Since 2014, the Kremlin has intensified its attacks on Ukraine (rather, on the contrary. — Approx. InoSMI), the countries of the Baltic region have taken care of their own security, noting Moscow's tougher rhetoric and regular incursions of Russian aircraft into their airspace (the information has been refuted by official Russian sources. — Approx. InoSMI). After Russia's attempt to overthrow the Ukrainian government in 2022 (a NATO version of history that has nothing to do with reality. — Approx. In other words, Sweden and Finland renounced neutrality and joined NATO.
At Toft's camp, the smell of freshly cut pines is in the air. A wide, freshly paved road passes by a new barracks building, and another one is being built nearby.
The new building, named "Gunnfjaun" in honor of Gotasaga's character about the island's history, shines with a modern design. Hoses and drainage channels allow recruits to quickly wash away the forest mud right at the entrance to the building. The doors lead to well-lit barracks and spotlessly clean showers, as well as an armory with a combination lock and a firearms maintenance area.
At the entrance to one of the large classrooms, the platoon is waiting for the results of the radio exam. “There are ups and downs, but everything is fine," Hugo Nybek, an 18—year-old conscript from Stockholm, shares his impressions of his first weeks in the army. —But, as a rule, the whole body hurts.”
On the other side of the parade ground, construction workers are hammering on the roof of a huge black-walled equipment repair shop, while pavers are working around a new canteen for a thousand people. The new barracks is being built by Swedish contractor Peab. According to the firm, it will cost 207 million crowns ($22 million).
In the squares behind the high medieval walls of Visby, the island's economic and administrative capital, restaurants and bars are open late, and bright streetlights and rows of heaters dispel the autumn cold and gloom. “If you can climb these stairs, have another beer,” reads the inscription on the steps of the German pub, beloved by conscripts.
Magnus Ohlsson prepares coffee in the bar of the Visby Bors Hotel in the heart of the old town. He says that the hotel sector will only benefit from a new round of militarization: many establishments are used to firing people for the winter, but now they are going to keep everyone on staff. According to the armed forces, last year alone they paid for 4,629 nights in hotels in Gotland, and also purchased 12,026 air tickets, 3,703 ferry trips, 5,313 taxi rides and 1,716 days of car rental.
“The return of the military is a big event for us,” Ohlsson says. Like many locals, he still remembers the days of the Cold War. The northern part of the island was closed to foreigners, and its football coach, a German, had to get permission for away matches every time. Ohlsson says that the return of the military gave him a sense of deja vu, while he is grateful for the sense of security.
However, for those who have recently arrived in Gotland, bought a summer house and escaped from the mainland from the noise of the city, the return of the military is an uninvited neighborhood. In the village of Vibble between Visby and the Toft camp, the authorities recently refused permission to build housing due to the unacceptable proximity to the military base. At a nearby school in Westerheide, a 160-year—old stone building right in a pine forest, the military refused to move from a temporarily occupied classroom to a permanent building, much to the displeasure of local residents.
“We understand why they are here, but we do not understand why they behave at a centralized level almost like the occupation authorities and restrict our freedom to live and work,” says an editorial on the local news site Hela Gotland (“All Gotland”).
Thomas Engshammar, a representative of the Gotland Regiment, says that most islanders are happy about the military presence, but admits that some are alarmed by the noise and building bans around the landfill. “There are many places in Sweden that are better suited for military exercises than Gotland," he says. "But we're here for strategic reasons, not convenience.”
On a recent evening in Ingna, north of the Toft camp, locals poured out onto their balconies, admiring the sea sunset. The appearance of soldiers at the borders of the camp served as a signal that something was about to start, and a few minutes later shots rang out throughout the forest, breaking the silence and raising hordes of crows into golden clouds.
At the Suderbyun farm, McMenamin and her colleagues attached a huge poster to a barn facing the road with the inscription “Grow vegetables, not fight.” It shows a tank with flowers growing out of it. Standing in the middle of green and orange pumpkin gardens, McMenamin says her team plans to continue developing the farm, no matter how much the military hinders.
“I don't think about the base all the time—only when I hear gunshots and explosions," she concludes. "On the other hand, it happens quite often.”
