A Swedish fighter intercepts a Russian spy plane in March 2013. Swedish air force photo

Russia Just Pretend-Bombed Sweden—Again

Moscow’s aerial war exercises get aggressive

Talking to a local media outlet, a Swedish armed forces officer revealed that Russian bombers practiced bombing runs on Sweden, the Baltic states and Poland last week.

These sorts of military close encounters occur quite often and some of them even stir up media attention, as happened in March, April and June.

The latest episode occurred on the morning of Oct. 28, when three Russian escort planes and two bombers flew in direction of Swedish territory. The formation was detected on the radar over the Gulf of Finland and for one hour they seemingly carried out attack runs against Poland the Baltic countries and the southern tip of Öland in Sweden.

“I think the purpose was to practice various types of attacks as well as highlight the Russian presence in the southern Baltic,” Anders Persson, acting flight tactical commander of the Swedish armed forces said in an interview with SVT.se.

“We are now seeing an increased activity of Russian strategic bombers in the area. Of course we have to follow developments and see what they’re going and what they are doing,” Persson said.

Two Gripen fighter jet were scrambled to keep a close eye on the Russian planes.

Even though Sweden is used to military training activity in the Baltic Sea area, the Russians’ especially aggressive posture makes the drills more than a bit annoying.

“The difference is that when we practice, we do it together with a nation,” Persson said. “We do not practice on any target in any country without the country being involved in the exercise. The Russian behavior is far more aggressive in their exercises.”

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