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Comment by cpach | Hacker News Reader

And we’re connected in a way via the Baltic Sea.

Also, the pipelines Nord Stream (2011) and Nord Stream 2 (incomplete) run through Sweden's EEZ. These pipelines deliver Russian-produced natural gas to Germany. Sweden was uneasy about the pipeline, speculating and believing Russia's own suggestions that this would motivate a Russian naval presence, but couldn't find a lasting legal reason to not grant approval.

It shouldn't have to be explained at all. It makes perfect sense that the US spends money to protect itself from adversaries it shares no borders with for example. The above argument makes no sense, objectively.

"It shouldn't have to be explained at all"

Why not? People shall chew that gum without any criticism?

Otherwise you will have another round of believing in Lebensraum because that corporal did say so ...

I mentioned it as a bit of context since perhaps not all HN readers are familiar with the geography of the area in question. People here are from all around the world so I don’t expect every reader to be familiar with Sweden, Russia and the Baltic Sea.

For example, some reader might think ”okey but to reach Sweden, Russia will first have to go through Finland or Norway”. Nope. They simply have to send their military fleet over the sea.

Case in point: A lot of Sweden’s military resources during the WW2 and cold war was focused on the island of Gotland, home to less than 60000 persons. If Russia would attack Sweden it would make a lot of sense to first gain control of Gotland and then use that as a base for taking Stockholm, the capital.

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