Scandinavian observations and perspectives

[thorbiorn]

This was a good one, in terms of the reporting on the bombardment by the media towards preparation for war against Russia. Malinen, who was interviewed, repeats the story of how easily it would be to isolate Finland and be forced to negotiate if Stockholm is destroyed and the island of Gotland in the Baltic sea is taken by Russia. This would be an extreme scenario, and seems to be highly unlikely, but it shows the absurdity of a hypothetical full-scale NATO war using Finland as one of the launching grounds.

The above scenario brought up the question of the Danish Straits, because what would be the value of Finland and Gotland if the straits are closed.

When we look at the maps, the Danish Straits are narrow:

In the comment, it is written:

Map of Danish Straits maritime chokepoints
The Danish Straits, a series of channels that connect the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, are an important route for Russian seaborne oil exports to Europe. An estimated 3.2 million b/d of crude oil and petroleum products flowed through the Danish Straits in 2016. go.usa.gov/xRvFp

That was a few years ago!

The places where larger ships can or do sail is small.
A map with more details is from danpilot.dk, a service that offers ship guidance through the waters:

There is strategic advantage of these straits, which is maybe why the US called them chokepoints, since Denmark is a part of NATO.

The two larger islands in the straits are connected with a tunnel and a bridge, Zealand and mainland Scandinavia too, Jutland and Fuen with two bridges. To close the straits for a shorter or longer term would be doable. If that happens what gets choked?

Given the above background, is there any significance in the following.

8. January at 00:45

Russian ships have been sailing around the Kattegat for over a day

Text by /ritzau/
For at least a day, two Russian ships have been circling in the middle of the waters of the Kattegat between Denmark and Sweden.

This is written by the Swedish media TV4.

The Swedish Coast Guard has informed the Danish authorities about the ships.

- We have informed the relevant authorities and those responsible for surveillance in Denmark, says Klas Loven, who heads the command center at the Swedish Coast Guard.

According to the Swedish Coast Guard, the ships are in Danish waters.

On radar images, you can see that the ships have been circling a small area in the Kattegat at least since Monday evening.

It is immediately unclear why the ships are in the water, writes TV4.

- They have been there for a while. I can't say it more precisely, says Klas Loven from the Swedish Coast Guard to TV4.

According to Ritzau, these are the two ships 'Sergey Balk' and 'SB-123'.

It is permitted for Russian ships to sail through Danish waters, but for a long time the focus has been on the activities of the Russian shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea and around Denmark.

For example, the Chinese ship 'Yi Peng 3', which was at anchor for several weeks in the Kattegat, as it had a suspicious route past cables that were soon found to be damaged.

Published on January 8 right after midnight and claiming they have sailed around for at least 24 hours it is remarkable that Donald Trump Jr visited Greenland on January 7! If the US goes to Greenland if not Svalbard, what will be the response?