Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC840302); site ttds.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!hao!seismo!mcvax!enea!ttds!alf From: alf@ttds.UUCP (Thomas Sj|land) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Soviet landings in Sweden Message-ID: <559@ttds.UUCP> Date: Fri, 7-Sep-84 21:41:34 EDT Article-I.D.: ttds.559 Posted: Fri Sep 7 21:41:34 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 14-Sep-84 05:06:40 EDT References: <1287@sdcrdcf.UUCP> <289@haring.UUCP> Organization: The Royal Inst. of Techn., Stockholm Lines: 55 The Swedish Department of Defense could not confirm the statements made by Jane's that Soviet special marines, the so called "Spetznaz" troops have been using Swedish islands in the outer Archipelago as training area on at least 150 occasions the last 20 years. Fact of the matter as it looks to someone who does not have access to top secret material is that the media have reported a number of incidents where mystic unidentified frogmen have been seen by observers in the archipelago area. On several occasions the last two to three years the Swedish marine has tried to trap "unidentified underwater activity" as the term goes but have so far failed to force the submarines to surface. Shooting at "fleeing frogmen" with sharp ammunition on land (!) has occurred in Karlskrona this spring, unfortunately (?) without success. On one occasion just outside of Stockholm close to one of Sweden's most modern marine base at H}rsfj{rden the identification evidence in the form of radar-echoes and video-films of traces from mini-submarines under water were considered so clear that the government issued a formal protest to the Soviet authorities and also cut down diplomatic activities for a period of approximately one year. The Soviet's official answer was to deny completely and blame the Swedish military and media for cooperating with NATO in an international 'anti-Soviet campaign'. The Soviet GRU-officer Michail Milstein answered through 'secret channels' to the Swedish government in a message that leaked to the media from the foreign ministry that the Soviet's would never admit anything like this, no matter how clear the evidence were. The government has given submarine hunting equipment including new electronic outfits and better armed costal corvettes and helicopters highest priority. The standing order to the armed forces has been changed from the former one of using any means to force the foreign submarines to the surface to a stronger version stated by prime minister Palme of using any means to fight these intruders including "shooting to kill" which is normally only used under warlike conditions. Some observers have though doubted that this is the actual order and the diplomatic activities of the government lately have given evidence that they do not want to have an intensified diplomatic conflict with the much stronger russians. It is clear however that the reported events are putting Palme in a very difficult situation since he wants Sweden to act as some sort of international "Peace mediator". Having a direct conflict with the russians certainly makes these ambitions very much more difficult to fulfill. So far the government has not commented the official Soviet attempts to quiet the Swedish media by asking for government actions to stop 'anti- soviet' articles in the press (expressed in an article by the official TASS-commentator Alexander Bovin in liberal 'Dagens Nyheter' this spring), a fact that worries at least the commentators in the conservative 'Svenska Dagbladet'. Though nobody actually beleives that the government would succeed in trying to impose a 'finnish' attitude on the press it is clear that the Department of Foreign Affairs uses its possibility of making sensitive documents 'top secret' ever so often, something which has been critizised by several liberal and conservative commentators as well as by the chinese oriented communists. The latest incident with the Suchoi-15 hunting a civil aircraft over swedish territory was such an event that a leakage at the department let out to the press. Evidently the social democrat government wants to speak to the russians without having the media interfering for reasons unknown to an ignorant observer of the people.