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We need a Baltic Alliance of Finland, Poland, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. We also need a Slavic alliance of Poland, Ukrainian Czechia and Slovakia And a Balkan alliance of Romania, Greece, Croatia and potentially Bulgaria.
@@smiley.6534 1at off he's been doing masterworks for awhile and it's not a scam the art is regulated as a security by the SEC not like Established titles based in hong kong with loose regulation
It's an old tradition. In Germany, we have the Herrmannsdenkmal, which depicts Arminius(Herrmann) who won over a Roman army 2k years ago. The monument was built when France was still considered the mortal enemy of Germany and thus it's no surprise that Arminius is keeping a watchful eye towards France while holding aloft his sword.
Well this king failed to attack russia... Its might be a warning dont attack there... As Sweden was a superpower in that time that king ruled. History teached in schools, but history have a tendensy to change to fit the narrative current told by ruling class
@@cofal79 That is not how that kind of thing works and the iconography of a ruler holding a sword pointing towards another nation is rather unquestionable. Your post is the kind of comment made by someone who just found out what Historical Revisionism is, but hasn't quite grasped the concept.
@@j.langer5949 Neither it was lousy nor put in wrong context. Do you know what makes me hard? The idea of Putin supporters being excuted infront of my eyes, while they beg and cry for mercy with their fascist lousy mouth.
@@j.langer5949 Certain quotes resonate with certain people depending on their current or past situation(s). It is possible that @Kevin attributed that saying to a personal life experience, while those who think with their genitals end up jumping straight to erotic conclusions.
Prior to the Ukraine war, Putin demanded that Sweden should never be allowed into Nato. The Swedes got really upset and nervous about that and decided immediately to apply for membership. So, hadn’t the Russians been so callous, arrogant and outright stupid, Sweden would most likely have stayed neutral.
That's a lie. Putin is on record here on TH-cam saying that he does *not* care about Finland or Sweden joining NATO and that them joining just makes them a target if nuclear war breaks out.
Yep Putin has done more damage to Russia than is imaginable. It is almost like he is a CIA plant who is there to absolutely destroy what is left of that place and its military.
@@craigkdillon Really? Putin seems to have made short work of the Ukrainian military with only 7% of Russia's military strength. The only idiotic thing Putin did was put restraints on Russian military because he's against civilian casualties. His generals wanted Blitzkrieg.
You forgot Swedens biggest strength… The airforce, it’s the biggest in the nordics and has very modern Gripen planes which it intends to expand in numbers and the air force is what can rapidly be sent to different places in the baltics and truly contend with Russia.
Having worked with Swedes in the past i'd be very confident in one thing: their military machine would work flawlessly. All the hardware would be in top working order and their logistics would be superb. They're a very capable and competent bunch of people.
As a Dane working with Swedes and Germans, I can attest to the above. In every other part of the world, we Danes are cold as ice. Compared to Germans and Swedes, we're apparently considered the "Italians of the North"
A lot of that was because they needed ro do it themselves, because while nominally NATO-aligned, they werent in NATO proper and simply didnt free ride on the Americans. I hope that doesnt change over time.
As someone who's a Swedish citizen while also studying towards becoming an officer in the Swedish Royal Navy, much of what is brought up in this video is both familiar and accurate. I admire your research and attention to detail and even I didn't even know the reason as to why our statue was pointing east!
Having served as a conscript and National Guard leader in Sweden for 13 years, before I moved to the United States, I can say that Sweden has always looked east, also in practice. Sweden had a secret treaty with NATO and it wasn't much of a secret either. All units were deploying facing east in wartime and The units in the Western areas of Sweden were labeled strategic reserve. My basic training geared me toward communications position at the military district staff. A ton of what was included clearly showed that we were prepping for NATO cooperation at an early stage of a war. Same thing for a couple of my buddies who served as rangers and paratroopers on the same base.
@Anton Smirnov It depends on what you mean by always. We were one of the dominating powers in Europe for hundreds of years. That was ended by country starting conscription and our small population made us less competitive. We were Allies of France for the longest time, and then of Germany. During both World wars, we would be as neutral as we could, but ultimately being nicer to the dominating power. During the Cold War, we did have the aforementioned secret alliance. Full neutrality was not really an option and in the choice between a domineering and imprerialist West and the death and gulags of the Soviet hell hole, the choice was easy.
@Anton Smirnov Rather be a satrap of anglo-Saxons than equal to a country with a GDP per capita smaller than that of Poland or Romania. ;) Russia hasn't been so primitive since before peter the great :)
@Anton Smirnov have you even looked at the Caucasus and certain parts of European Russia? Those guys have a phenomenal birth rate while ethnic Russians are getting fewer every year.
@Anton Smirnov Dude, the UK Lost in 1945. The process started when they declared war on Germany in 1939. If you want to be even pickier, they sort of lost World War I and would actually have if it wasn't for the United States. They haven't been a world power in forever. I don't personally care about the United Kingdom and I don't understand why you do either? Russia needs to be concerned with the United States and China. Once Russia gets weak enough, China will stab them in the back...
@Anton Smirnov I would rather be rich with poor neighbours, than poor with good ones. Furthermore, in response to someone pointing out Russia's demographic difficulties you just bury your head in the sand and say "russia will always win". Blind faith has only ever lead to disappointment, even in victory, so good luck with that
Hands down best geopolitics/war channel on youtube. Im from Papua New Guinea in the oceanic region of the world, a big island north of Australia, I continue to learn much more about the rest of the world thanks to you! Things are heating up in Europe, yall better chill, the last time a war came to my country (WW2), my ancestors saw airplanes for the first time, we were still living in the stone age lol! My country is not ready for another war and I hope things get better for all our sakes!
Lmao I have a chuckle seeing you say that technically it's true for any people still living as hunter gatherers. If I as a white person said it tho, I would be fkn castrated 😅
Hi neighbour!! 😃🙌🏻 I too have come to learn so so much more about the world since 24th Feb . Amazing to think your family hadn’t seen planes yet. 😮 Listening to historians and Geopolitics while observing a world map is very eye opening. Please if you haven’t heard of him already - Stephen Kotkin - is absolutely fascinating to listen to about Russia. 😉 ✌🏻🇦🇺
You could say that Sweden has a deep rooted naval tradition but I think the airforce is their strongest card. Norway has a very advanced navy for its size though. Producing their own multi purpose smart missiles for sea to sea and sea to land missions. Some of the most advanced systems in the world atm. The Nordic countries is more or less an alliance within the alliance. They supplement each other and it is intentional.
@@thomaseriksson6256 Our land forces are a sideshow, they are there to lock down the north and respond to landings elsewhere. But the landings shouldn't happen, since the air force and navy is tasked with taking care of them in the Baltic. There is a reason our stocks of RBS15 missiles are massive, and we have a fighter specifically designed to take down Russian ones.
@@thomaseriksson6256 Thats not really true, it's just not big enough to compete with the larger naval powers such as britain. Its navy works for what purpose it serves: Protecting its interests in the baltic.
@@starcobra2575 And let's not forget Hitler decided against an invasion of Sweden in part since he thought the Swedish Navy would make resupply risky. And don't we have a warship in a museum that toppled over because we went nuts with the amount of guns on it? Yeah, sounds like it's always been a joke, even since Viking times... He is either a self hating Swede or just a salty Dane. They never seem to get the brotherly banter we for example have with the Norwegians. They just always feel offended and respond by lashing out.
There is a fair amount of industry in the north. In the northern coasts all around the Botnic Sea and up in the Arctic, towns cling in a line around the coast. Towns sprung up where the rivers met the sea so barges from the inland could meet sea-going ships. The rivers have been replaced in importance by the train nowadays but the important port towns remain.
@@SusCalvin People forget how big Sweden is. The amount of resources there have fueled civilization in the north since the Nordic Bronze Age; should Sweden actually get itself together it could be a European powerhouse, but instead it kucks to the will of Brussels.
@@bustavonnutz The European Union is a perfect projection system. Let me suggest, the future of Sweden depends on its own people and politicians. If they have some good projects, they can produce them with or without EU. Same with GBR.
Yes! When your Finland joining NATO video came out months ago, I was hoping that you would cover Sweden joining NATO. Thank you for the early Christmas present!
My great grandfather was in the Swedish army on Cannons, He emigrated to the USA and and after a few years joined the Union army to fight in the American Civil War where he also was on Cannons. Later in the Census of civil war veterans the census take wrote that he was almost deaf.
Off topic: Hi Marvin I don't if you know but the proper way how to spell your sir name is with two s:es. The son of Carl should be spelled Carls son = Carlsson. All son-names are spelled like that in Sweden, in the old days as wall now days. :)
@@tigerpjm Not really. The population outside the collective west added together is far greater. It also has a massive chip on its collective shoulders because the west's got most of the money which is why it tends to back Russia. Its much less even than a follicle count between JS and BW?
@xtc2v You're going to have to go find someone else if you want to debate this absurd whataboutism any further. The Junior High common room should contain roughly the calibre of debater you're looking for.
@@tigerpjm I'm debating if you have any absolute fixed morals. It appears that when asked to justify the hypocrisy you resort to being rude because you know you have been caught out just simply taking a side
As soon as I saw the news of Sweden’s (also Finland’s) formal application, I knew the stage was set for one of the most significant, consequential developments in European geopolitical and military affairs of our time - the reverberations of which will last for a long time. The current reality of our world is very different from just eight to ninth months previous - it’s simply insane how fast and far things can change in a matter of mere months.
Sweden has not much of the land forces but has a good navy and powerful airforce. Finland on the other hand has a great land forces and great way to mobilize the reserves, very much the same as Israel or Switzerland.
Yes, between Sweden on the sea and air and Finland in the air and on land, Russia would be fighting 2 hedgehogs that are already very well prepared via their military exercises with NATO to defend themselves, and potentially even capture territory should they want to do so. Putin has been very foolish, and was severely misinformed about the state of his armed forces.
Who is NATO's Recruiter of the Year ? You guessed right. Vladimir Putin. Putin recruited Finland 🇫🇮 and Sweden 🇸🇪 overnight. Good job 👏. Greetings from Germany...🍺👋
that is, the number of troops in the northwest of Russia is not large, and this is the danger for Sweden and Finland ?! lol?? Nato-imperial machine number 1 in the world.
@@zigast3387 In the recent 15 years, Russia has sent in its military to every European neighbour (and Moldavia) that is not in the NATO - except to Finland. And you wonder why Finland wants to join NATO? 😀 Russia is unable to get friends so it seeks subjects. NATO members all made their own choise to join, none of them was ever forced. Why do you expect Russia's neighbours to sit and wait for their tanks? And now tell me: who is the imperialist in this story?
@@BiharyGabor No one answered my question why Finland sees a threat where it does not exist, I understood, I accepted ... You also don’t understand geopolitics if you think that the territories around Russia should be left without Russia’s attention ... Condolences to the victims of Western education ....
@@zigast3387 You are wrong (or more likely dishonest): the answer has been given to you and your likes endless times. However, your question as formulated here is invalid because it includes a false statement: the threat _does_ exist, indeed. And I explained why. Let me repeat for you! In the recent 15 years, Russia has sent in its military to every European neighbour (and Moldavia) that is not in the NATO - except to Finland. And you wonder why Finland wants to join NATO? Nobody thinks that the territories around Russia should be left without Russia’s "attention". However, if you believe that Russia's "attention" means imperialistic war than it is not me who has difficulties understanding geopolitics.
@@BiharyGabor Let me remind you that Finland is the brainchild of Russia, in the first place ... Second, Finland has been independent for more than 100 years at the behest of Russia, and Russia simply needs Finnish neutrality. But just the CIS countries that climbed into NATO, and want to "defend" themselves quickly from the Russian Federation, fall under the forced "physical influence" of Russia. And for 30 years after the collapse of the USSR, the West just did not have to interfere in the affairs of the CIS, if they wanted democratic changes in the Russian Federation. And in the end they forced the Russians to defend themselves. P.S. Read "The Grand Chessboard" by Zbigniew Brzezinski, everything is clearly stated there.
My god you are so good at this. I have a love for history, geography and geopolitics in particular, so I have a strong tolerance for boring stuff. You instill a sense of je ne sais quoi into your videos to the point where I feels chills with the way you say things, the music in the background at just the right time, and your quotes, man. It's the perfect storm. Bravo.
Can second this, so many of the channels just regurgitate the same information on a topic I’ve heard 1000 times. CR makes me think in ways I wouldn’t normally and brings facts to my attention I wasn’t aware of & fascinate. Top tier TH-cam channel!🏆
As a Swede this has to be the most stupid decision Russia ever made. Both us and Finland have tried so hard for 100 years to stay neutral but we just can't anymore. Gotland sure is a valuable asset. It's like an aircraft carrier just sitting there in the middle of the ocean.
I, as an American, cannot wait to see US, Swedish and British Jets taking off from the Airbases that are gonna be built there. You think we should build a big ass statue showing the Scandinavian+Baltic allied Nations… or is that too corny?
That’s right, we have worked hard to stay neutral and when Russian is at its weakest power, oh now you want to join NATO? Now _that_ is stupid. Swedes very stupid decision to lose neutrality.
@@TheBooban Why would Sweden be neutral when it comes to safeguarding its own security? It would be far better if Russia was neutral and kept within its own borders.
@@TheBooban Yeah, Boob-head over here really doesn’t get the bigger picture. Joining NATO comes with a lot of perks, more than just the mutual defense. An especially important one is it puts Sweden and Finland on the list for Military Technology exports from the US.
What about unchecked American power? Who's going to crush that? America's globalism is the real threat to the human species and life. Enslaved to fiat currency debt system, federal reserve printing money from thin air backed by literally nothing, enslave every single tribe of human beings on Earth to their debt system, spread their misery to the world, their poisons, McDonald's, Coca Cola high fructose corn syrup soy diets, vapid, soulless, braindead "culture" worship of the rich and famous, tyrants who kill millions in sovereign nations for oil, gas, israel. The worst empire that has ever existed in all recorded human history. They have military bases surrounding virtually every country and zone on planet Earth. If you don't like their system they kill your leader, call you a dictatorship and invade your country. drowning in debt and misery with stagnant wages, profiteering drug companies, third world backwards education systems, eroding infrastructure, diminishing middle class, widening income inequality, endless wars that only create terrorists and destroy the west, and worship of the rich and famous and Hollywood bread & circuses for the vaccinated masses
This would be an awesome idea. And in true Russian Style, have "Citizens" of Kaliningrad join the City to prepare the voting.... I am pretty sure Poland could spare 100K "Russians" to make this happen.
It could be true. Finland joined NATO 4.4. 2023 Sweden is still waiting.... Actually I wish Turkey and Hungary will ratify Sweden's application very soon.
Regarding the intro with how the Russian threat is part of Swedish culture; This is true. My parents living through the cold war had a constant "Red Danger" looming over them. And growing up i was told "Ryssen kommer" (The Russians are comming) both seriously and half-hearted as a joke. I never really believed this would be the case as it would just be madness. And turns out i was both right and wrong. Russia did indeed become the agressor and it was indeed madness.
here in Ukraine we did not believed... well, did not want to believe russia will restart a war even after Crimea occupation. Unfortunately, that didn't help(
Порошенко на стадионе кричал ,что дети Донбасса будут сидеть в подвалах,а наши дети пойдут в школу.вы поддерживаете нацисткий режим Украины.позор вам Швеция👎
5:44 : Small correction, the DW (Deutsche Welle) article on Sweden formally announcing it wants to join NATO as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian War was on 16 May 2022 (nearly 7 months ago), *not* 2020. Sweden probably was hesitant at that time pre-war on abandoning neutrality, but looks like its hand was forced. Nonetheless, a great video, and one great time YT’s algorithm works to suggest new channels to subscribe to.
Generally Sweden has been on the fence of NATO for many years, cooperating in lots of exercises. Formally joining isn't that big of a step. While public opinion has been against joining, to my knowledge it's never been a particularly strong opinion for most people. There has also been a significant amount of people who think joining is just a matter of publicly declaring it rather than any real practical change. So yes, "hesitant" is probably the right word to use. "Forced" probably less so, and more that it's just time to do it and that was the final push.
100% that we where hesitant, and even now as things are only ramping up and Putin's madness is only becoming clearer we still have a lot of people who are against joining NATO. But I wouldn't say our hand was forced so much as it is a strategic choice. If we join NATO now we get to have quite a lot of input on how military development will happen in our own country, things like where bases will be placed, how we work with the rest of the nordic countries, etc. But if we end up being forced into NATO should Russia turns its guns on us, we suddenly will have a lot less say in the matter as we will be too valuable to risk and too many members will push for what is correct in their opinion. Not to mention that, while we want to be part of NATO for the sake of mutual protection and co-operation with a military superpower, we are also aware of history and how said military superpower have... "helped" in the past. We want to co-operate with US and EU troops, co-operate being the key word here.
Thank you for a great video. What got me most interested when reviewing the military build up was actually the airforce. 60 new Gripen and updating everything to Gripen E will amount to 160 fusilages. That's one hell of a force, add to that the new patriot missiles and a new battalion of loiter drones and we're talking a serious build up before even taking the army and navy in to account.
The fact Russia places more priority in militarising the Artic(where a traditional invasion is impossible), Ukraine and the Caucasus, instead of its border with NATO shows how much it really sees NATO as a threat, especially because that area of Belarus and the Baltic have been the most dangerous and traditional path to an invasion of Russia in History, it is where the terrain is less defensible, only Minsk and the Gates of Smolensk stand in the way.
Yes, unfortunately you see this as a *good* thing when seeing anything as a *threat* usually leads to BAD things. When was the last thing a country and its people acted reasonably and sanely when being under threat? Can you name a single country anywhere in the world which has reacted positively when it says it's under threat?? Didn't you read history? HOW do you think Hitler came to power in Germany? Mostly because the Germans felt the Versailles Treaty was harsh and unfair, that Germany's economy was threatened by countries which dictated the terms of trade and that they felt marginalized. Do you think Hitler and the nazis just materialized in a vacuum and that they gained huge popularity out of the blue? Do you think that other dictators and bad presidents come to power without the support of angry people in the country?? If the victors of WWI wasn't so hellbent on punishing Germany we would never have seen Hitler and WWII. And now you're saying it's a good thing to have Russia feel threatened? Let's threat them even more! Hey, let's even talk about an *invasion* (!!) because we're fighting for peace and justice... Yeah, I wonder how many times in history an invasion of another country has been justified the same way. The USA does it wherever it goes, even for the countries which aren't even a remote threat to them. You know what? I hope there will be a war. I hope it's prolonged. Then short-sighted fools like yourself will feel the effects when everything you take for granted comes in short supply and the cost of war puts the already pushed tax-payers into going berserk. If you want to support the Ukrainian people, by all means keep doing so. Sending them help and support is infinitely more useful than you clowns playing with your toy soldiers and utterly lacking the ability to see conflicts from any side but your own. How much help have *you* given the Ukrainian people? I utterly loathe Putin's Russia. But to think that the likes of him and his supporters will back down when feeling more threatened?? No, don't expect a desperate man to act rationally. It's also a good idea to look up your *own leaders* and see what's all this urgency for anyway? And what's *really* at stake here? Surely you don't believe this is some "noble crusade" for freedom we're talking about here? No, when it comes to war and the driving force behind them follow the money and who gains what.
@@paulallen8109 you managed to completely miss the point of the comment you are replying to! The fact that Russia has only stationed a very low number of troops and hardware near their existing borders means that they consider the threat of invasion from NATO is nonexistent. The comment is simply pointing out that one of the reasons Russia cited for invading Ukraine, NATO expansion, is a lie they came up with to justify imperialist land grab! Get a grip dude!
@@paulallen8109 Reading Pedro's text, I believe he's saying that Russia is actually not feeling threatend by NATO countries, despite their narrative. Their actions show their intent. He did edit his text, so it might be different than what you read though
Thank you! And so very true! If Russia, or well, Putin in this case, wasn’t so stuck in the idea of a new Soviet Union and invading sovereign neighbors, we wouldn’t even have needed to consider joining NATO. But as is, I see more positives than negatives with us joining. I’m Swedish
@@craighughes2191 To simplify, NATO was created to "keep Germans down, keep Americans in, and keep Russians out" As long as the world's most powerful military alliance (and an instrument to US hegemony) exists, it will pose an existential threat to all other independent and sovereign states...
Thank you for this video! I have seen much more videos like this about us Finns joining Nato, sometimes I’ve felt like Sweden’s membership has gone more under the radar besides Turkey’s ever-changing demands.
A key factor to also keep in mind, is that Sweden's geographic and cultural brother, Denmark, is a founding member of NATO and have had a sort of military pact/alliance for a long time despite Sweden's official claim to be military neutral. But the neutrality has only truly extended to not starting or partaking aggressively in wars. In terms of communications and intel, Sweden has very much been geared for keeping an eye on the eastern shores of the Baltic, and should push come to shove, a military alliance with NATO would be extremely likely even without them officially joining. But the fact that Sweden now officially wants to join NATO puts further pressure on the Baltic and thoroughly eliminates Russian relevance in these waters - which is effectively the only consistent waterway access point that Russia holds, due to their northern shores being frozen solid most of the year. Even their black sea access is greatly minimized now with Turkish sanctions against Russian war vessels.
Denmark and norway and brothers Sweden are at best cousins. In everyhting but language Sweden is much tighter bound to Finland and even Estonia and Latvia.
@@DaDunge If you want to get specific then the subregions of Sweden have varying cultural relations, where yes the north eastern parts of Sweden are definitely closer tied to Finland, but that is not the case for many other parts of Sweden - and namely the fact that Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have historically been under a common rule and all considered a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, is a tie that Sweden and Finland can't match. Yes there has also been rivalry in equal measure, but similar to how brothers fight, so have our countries. Scandinavia is a big cultural union, always will be. Every Nordic country is closely related in one form or another.
@@Real_MisterSir Nope wrong again. The crowns of the three kingdoms were for a time held by one person who ruled from Denmark but they never stopped being three separate Kingdoms. And I live in the very south of Sweden have all my life and I feel a lot more kinship with Finland than with Denmark. Heck I feel more positively towards Germany than towards Denmark.
This week's vocabulary lesson is "Riparian" an adjective that describes a body of water (typically a lake or river) and its surrounding lands. The use here in the context of an area of the sea is not included in many dictionaries, but fits in the narrative that the Baltic may be a NAO lake.
S are when you learn word use from a non-nat8ve speaker. I had always thought of riparian as freshwater but it can also be tidal. Learn something new every day. I learned the word while watching Keeping Up Appearances, a British sitcom. An arrogant wannabe hosted a riparian picnic.
@@wederMaxim I’ll do so willingly and gladly. I believe in maintaining the order of things, lest those filthy Russian Mongols or those Riceeyes over in China get any funny ideas. In the case of China we can easily cut their oil lifeline from the sea, and watch as they collapse within months.
@@wederMaxim why don't you join your "glorious" ruSSian army and fight against the interests of the USA then, boy? Ukrainians would be more than happy to make fertilizer out of you.
And take into acount that Ukraine are beating Russia with old Soviet gear and Nato gear from the 90´s... Russia will not stand a chance against either Finland or Sweden without Nato, and with Nato they simple are outclassed 100%
@@larswhitt1549 Agree either Finland or Sweden by themselves could take the sad remainder of the russian military out at this point and it would be easy.
@@mw7851Common sense makes them feel to be a prime NATO target. You're one of these fools who still believes that NATO countries were worried about Iran? Please...
@@kelumo7981 if you want to talk about it seriously, let's do that, why not) stupid decision #1: threaten former allies to use force when they want to distant themselves from russia stupid decision #2: steal, steal, steal, steal everything instead of developing own country, enforcing more and more countries to distant themselves from russia stupid decision #3: occupy Crimea stupid decision #4: start a war and spend about 100k dead for nothing, which started russian cancellation activities all over the world is that enough nonsense?)
Im in Sweden, theres been day and night military drills in my town for three weeks, mortars and machine gun fire echo at least every hour. Things are definetly happening here.
As has been the case for nearly 80 years, NATO is a defensive alliance. By joining NATO, Sweden and Finland together recognize that mere non-alignment, even if robust, is an inadequate position to hold in that neighborhood.
@@wederMaxim well it is... nobody is forced to join NATO and the main directive is to respond to attacks. However, I do agree NATO has been used as a USA foreign interest's extendable arm for quite a lot of time now.
@@peterjensen5954 we can ask, but nato alliance was not triggered for these war. An example would be italy that was there just as a peace keeping force under ONU. Same for Germany, sice they cannot join in offensive wars by law
@@peterjensen5954 Afghanistan chose to train, arm, support and hide Folk who deliberately attacked a NATO member multiple times. Yugoslavia thought they could go back 60 years to when Ethnic Cleansing and Mass Murder was an Acceptable Policy. I don't know what Libya did, I think you have to ask the French about that one. And hardly anyone from NATO was interested in attacking Iraq. It IS a Defensive Alliance. Everyone is well aware Russia has literally thousands of Nuclear Warheads. No-one WANTS a fight with Russia, but Putin has an annoying habit of invading all of his neighbours unprovoked. Ask Chechnya, Georgia, Moldova or Ukraine. Twat.
And the amount of harm NATO countries have done to Russia so that somebody like Putin comes to power in the first place is equally incredible. Because the Versailles Treaty was so fair and just somebody like Hitler just came to power - through democratic means no less - out of the blue... Right. Pardon my sarcasm. Learn from history. Or be doomed to repeat it. Tyrants never emerge where people feel safe and secure. When there is a threat, be it an inner or outer, people will support a "strong man". People who feel threatened tend to rally behind nationalism and religion. Often it's one and the same thing in certain countries. Nationalism and religion are very dangerous things. They offer comfort and security when there is a threat. Strength in numbers. Goodbye individualism and free thought. BUT there has to be certain extraneous factors which led to those things in the first place. And you'd be amazed how many times that has to do with the meddling of other countries - mostly those who require the natural resources of that country. I've talked to enough people from African and Asian countries (in person!) who describe the reason for their civil war and what it's all really about. You'd be amazed how many times some of your noble NATO countries do absolutely nothing as long as the flow of the natural riches of said country flow freely... They'll only react if the "wrong people" seize control of those. Ever studied the history of 20th century Iran? Reza Shah was the leader of Iran from the 1920's to 1941. Turns out he had sympathies towards Nazi Germany who made him promises his country could keep most of its oil. Well, obviously the British didn't like that (they got most of their oil from here prior to the American entry in the war) so they invaded Iran and depose the Shah (king). After the war the Iranian people democratically voted Muhammad Mossaddegh to be prime minister. He "unfortunately" (sarcasm) had this idea that Iran's oil could be used to help the people. Unfortunately (more sarcasm) the British didn't like that and orchestrated a coup in 1953 with the support of the CIA and overthrew him. In his place the son of the overthrown king of 1941 was made total leader. Muhammad Reza Pahlavi (last shah of Iran). What an obedient puppet he was. A true yes-man. Then by the 70's he started thinking and realized that for all his gargantuan wealth his own people were still poor. Then he suddenly realized he sold the oil in his own country for peanuts and tried to change that by opposing those who purchased the oil... Oh dear. Soon enough his own people began hating him. Just remember that there was no freedom of speech in Iran and nobody could write or publish anything opposing the Shah. Enter the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Now everything was in free-fall. Again, like I said, what does scared and lost people rally behind. Nationalism and religion. Enter the fundamentalist Muslims and their Sharia Law state under Ruhollah Khomeini. My point with Iran is: Do you honestly think that all that British and American meddling in Iran for 50 years and who got a certain price for oil and who controlled *didn't matter* ?? Do you think that the Versailles Treaty and the victorious allies pillaging Germany for coal and other commodities in the early 1920's had nothing to do with the rise of Hitler?? So why do you believe that Russia just started supporting Putin out of the blue?? He came to power because most Russians felt worried and scared prior to him. And much of that fear had basis in the meddling and demands of your "freedom-loving" countries. That "freedom" only goes as long as whatever natural commodity is steadily provided. So good luck to you if you think this all just started with Putin.
@@paulallen8109 What has NATO ever done to Russia specifically? NATO didn’t make the Soviet Union collapse. Neither did NATO cause the chaos of the 90s. 80 years of totalitarianism came back to bite the Russians in their asses. NATO didn’t make Boris Yeltsin break the constitution, destroy Russian democracy, and destroy the economy through importing shock therapy economists. Russia hates NATO for the sole reason that NATO doesn’t allow Russia to oppress other Eastern Europeans anymore. That’s it. And your point about Germany is nonsense. If the reason Hitler rose to power is because Germany was treated too harshly after WW1, then why was there no second Hitler after WW2, when Germany was treated a hundred times harsher and essentially destroyed as a nation? Germany wasn’t treated too harshly by Versailles, it was treated too leniently. Same with Russia. We should have cut them out of our economies forever, rather than foolishly thinking that free trade would cause Russians to abandon the authoritarianism inherent to their nation.
For the last three decades we had this saying in Finland: Sweden will defend it`s land & intrests until the last Finn! 😉 Im glad our wester neighbour will pick up the slack, and become the western Big brother that we all knew it could be.🤟
I read that for the first time we had exercises together were Swedish troops were under the complete command of finnish commanders. I'm sure we'll see muuuch cooperation in the future between our two countries. Woho :) Lets go brother! Edit: Pretty sure Sweden would send in forces to help the finns right if Russia was to invade?
It is a standing joke but abit unfair. The only reason Sweden never joined NATO after WWII was because Finland could not join and Sweden did not want to leave Finland alone against Russia. Also Sweden had by far the largest military in the Nordics during the cold war. For this reason.
@@kelvindenize3940 that has changed, in 1949 ( might be wrong year) Sweden and Finland signed a very important piece of paper that states that if either is attacked the other is legaly forced to come to the aid of the one under attack. Basicly were both going to war if someone attacks us.
@@nenasiek That might be so, but as the UK ignored the attack on Poland and Sweden ignored the attack on Norway and Finland...you might trust it but I dont think it will work when tested.
Wow Caspian Report this might be my favourite video of yours yet. You're a total inspiration and actually because of seeing your success I've decided to start making videos too! Keep grinding, your hard work clearly pays off!
@@hermaeusmora4874 There is a russian consulate on the island specifically to oversee that. They own a plot of land for it. Some of the island residents wanted to start a volunteer unit. I don't think it got approved. During wartime, the plans would be different.
Yes Sweden joining Nato would crush Russian power, even though Ukraine has been crushing russian power for the past 8 months according to the same class of ding dongs
Thanks for making a video about my country. I did my military on that island Gotland before it was demilitarized. Back in those days I couldn’t imagine a military conflict involving that peaceful island. I wish this video should have emphasized the peaceful mindset of the people in Sweden. Sweden is a country that depends on peace, trade and cooperation across borders.
I just want to appreciate this amazing youtube channel! I watch 200 great channels but nothing excites me more than your high quality geopolitical videos!
Great content !! Just to be honest; there is Finland buffering Sweden against the enemy with the biggest field artillery now in western Europe, also with conscripts as always has been, like not in Sweden, so there is a Nordic security (with Norway) that were are safe. Majority of finns have military training up to 1 year for a reason and STILLL; 105 years independent since 1917.
finland being bufferzone for both swedish and ruskies: 1st being swedish bufferzone, then tsar russia for swedish and eventually back to swedish bufferzone. and reason for russia being so western fobia/''fearfull'' , is sweden.
@@iam5085 western artilery is superior in accuracy. Russians lost a lot of their artilery due to counter fire and it shows in numbers as of today in ukraine. Also You would have nato airpower. I think my country(Poland) wouldnt miss a chance to throw something in too :)
Another excellent video. Would love to see a lengthy Caspian Report 2022 - recapping the year that was🤔 I'm sure you aren't stuck for geopolitical topics. 😁👍
Once again I'd like to thank Vladimir Putin, as NATO salesman of the Post-Soviet Era. Before his vanity project in Ukraine many people were beginning to question the viability of NATO as an antiquated structure, but after February 24th there is no doubt in its necessity.
That's just because it's such an insignificant town that it doesnt need a english name :D And everyone knows that Gothenburg is the real capitol of Sweden around the world anyway...
@@theswedenguy4647 It isn't a town, it's a city which is in fact the 13th largest in Sweden, also I have never heard anyone call Gothenburg the "real capital of Sweden"
@@Geopolitics_Explained I reported you for spamming. "Hijacking" other youtube channels' comment sections is not a good look. There are better ways to grow than parasitic ones.
There is this funny aspect of modern international relations where nations that find themselves unaligned between western and Authoriterian states often attempt at national sovereignty, self-determination and independence. The thing is that those are things the west champions. When states like China and Russia speak on how much European and the US impose their will on the world and specifically interfere with them the interference is as often as not preventing classical imperialism ie explicit territorial expansion. In seeking independence states like Ukraine, Finland and Sweden are pushed into NATO by Russia's imperialistic tendencies. Similar things are and have occurred with China and it's neighbors. The liberal democracies of the world are winning at the great game by 1. shaping the game and setting the rules. And 2. Letting the self chosen opponents on plays backfire.
I think Ukraine deserves most of the credit for this revival. A side or arguably primary objective of Russia's invasion was to undermine the current "rules based" aka western dominant world order and indirectly set the stage for China's invasion of Taiwan or numerous other rogue states that are currently held back by said world order. Ik this is supposed to be a neutral geopolitics analysis channel but from a partisan perspective we really have Ukraine to thank for foiling the first step towards ushering in a new pre-WW2-esque barbaric world order
Then why was Vietnam attacked. All this talk about democracy and high moral ground is the bullshit west always talks. If US really values freedom of others then why it is occupying Puerto Rico, Hawaii
@@JN-wr9he True, A big irony but still, personally I agree with is point of view and you see the actions of several nations acting accordingly like he says
Also, NATO and the West remain a free choice by countries, not something imposed upon them. That was illustrated when France quit NATO in the 1960s. It was free to do so, and later chose to rejoin. And it's often pretty cheap insurance to buy, most of the time.
I have enjoyed the comments on this video as much as it's content. It was especially interesting hearing from the Swedes themselves assessing the information provided in the video and adding to it.
The old statue of the king with a sword pointing East towards Russia is pretty telling. All these countries have had to fight off invading russians it seems for all time just like Ukraine is having to do to this day unfortunately.
The north is sparsely populated because its cold as hell. As a side note, Swedish rock bands have become a thing in recent years. I am particularly fond of Sabaton. Rock on Sweden.
Awwww, man, ever seen Sabaton live? They blow the roof off every goddamn time. Their closing number the first time I saw them (Metal Crüe) might genuinely be my favourite live performance I've ever seen, certainly once you factor in the atmosphere created by their incredible fans.
@@kristofferhellstrom Lol, probably. I didn’t know until Sabaton became big time. Before that I hadn’t heard anything out of Sweden since Abba. Any other Swedish bands I should check out?
@@Pineappolis I wouldn’t doubt it. I’ll check out if they’re touring the USA this coming year. A lot of bands schedule winter months in the south like Florida, Georgia, Arizona, etc, and progressively move farther north during spring and summer.
@@johnbattle7518 the thing is, we don't want battles. You want battles as you have an expensive military industry to feed and maintain. So you look for conflicts all over to world to start and push the need for war. Wish that usa will put their energy and money into something better for humanity rather than the pockets of a couple of psychopaths dreaming of killings.
@Adele D LOL we've done .ore for humanity post WW2 than any country on the planet. Besides being one of the most generous countries in the world. We've made advancements in medicine technology you are currently using right now from your computer, internet smartphone, and TH-cam. We prevented Western Europe from becoming communists including your country, which indirectly benefited from both the Marshal plan and NATO. Again, I believe in pre WWII, isolationism I would have gone into Afghanistan destroyed the Taliban killed Omar and Bin Laden and left. I don't have a problem with covert operations to kill or capture threats to America. I don't have a problem with the US keeping shipping lanes open as it benefits us. You getting a benefit from it as well is pretty much just a convenience as far as I'm concerned. Kill the Iranian general that was killing Americans is something I also agree with. After that Russia could have all of you for all I care.
I always make these kinds of comments under CaspianReport because it's always the case. Here we go again: I've my thesis deadline in *2 days* and have to work to finish it. But then Shirvan uploads a video and I say "thesis can wait"
Very nice quote but didn’t really mean anything. “Those who try to move, only to realize their ankles are chained, assisting that their decision to move was never possible to begin with @.
"The end of humanity was not due to the march of soldiers. Boys loading artillery, manning the missle systems aimed for those to be robbed of existence. It ended back when the Politician smiled" ~Ivanovic Veselov, 1987
🎉🍾🥂🍸🍷🍺🥳 It's quite remarkable that Sweden's centuries long neutrality was able to survive Hitler and Stalin, but not Putin. With Sweden finally joining NATO and turning the Baltic sea into a NATO lake, the war in Ukraine already constitutes a resounding strategic defeat for Russia, even were its forces to miraculously reach Lviv tomorrow(which for the record, they never will).
I’m quite interested in the growth of NATO. The more powerful allies we have, the better we will be able to protect ourselves from Russia. Russia is not going to stop at Ukraine, and they probably have plans to go further. Increasing NATO’s combat capabilities is the best thing we can do right now to prepare for any danger coming our way.
Sweden choose to shut down many of its regiments and bases during the 90s since the "soviet danger" was no more. This is one of the biggest mistakes that they could do and now we have to rebuild everything nearly from scratch. As a swede i simply hope that service will become fully mandatory again.
You don't know how good it is to read that as a Finn. Sometimes we were laughed at for having mandatory service for all men, especially during the more stable times. It was indicating that we are preparing for conventional warfare, which people swore to be a thing of the past. After Armenia-Azerbaijan, Ukraine-Russia and the looming China-Taiwan war, everyone seems to be with our decision. A tiny and hyper expensive professional army (basically a peacekeeping force) can't get the job done.
Don’t ever forget that the nordic countries are like one Big country if we got a threat from the east. Norway and Denmark already in Nato, but should come to our defense the same day. Norway has a huge navy capasity along with Sweden if you compare the size of the countries to larger ones. Finland has one of the strongest armys in Europe built up for many years because of the long border with Russia. Swedish airforce is really hightech and advanced and have a great military industri that can produce massiv of weapons if needed. Right now the handweapon ”Carl Gustaf” is a great tool in the ukrainian army, in fact one of the best in the world right now, of that kind, and the ukrainians said the weapon was a turningpoint in the war. Besides NATO the nordic countries is like an allians of it’s own. A threat to one country is a threat to all of us, simple as that. Small countries, yes, but hightech developed countries! Russia can’t even handle Ukraine, and why then just think about to invade four allied countries in the north… I think Putin will see Crimea in the hands of Ukraine next year, and if he is smart (but he isn’t) he should withdraw troops right now to end the war and maybe then still could have control over Crimea and loose the rest… Donbass etc… 🇸🇪🇩🇰🇫🇮🇳🇴🇮🇸= stronger forces than what you think, bye👊🏋️♀️🥊
The great advantage if Russia over the history is that our enemies always underestimated us. So thank you very much that you do always again the same mistakes. Really very nice from you to support our great history to beat one European idiot after another
Putin knows that Russia is not a country actually, it's just a militarized gas station that can't produce even a primitive electric device like an electric kettle. That's why he wants to grab not only the new lands, but qualified people as well to boost Russia's economy. Me and my dad are from Kiev, my dad used to work as an engineer for Soviet military - he tested sonars against NATO submarines. Many Ukrainian engineers worked for the space program of USSR, the well known Ukrainian Korolev sent Yuri Gagarin to the Space. Russia wants to grab all the resources it could sniff - lands, soil, people, water reserves, wheat, grain. If Russia fails to grab the new resources, it will eventually collapse
Next fairy tale from urkanian? Following your "historical " books ukraine us older than the monkeys from which we all evolutionated. The point is if you are so great and old country, how fid itt vote you could hide so well yourself in the middle of Europe over 2000 years? No agreement with any country before 1991, no historical map with ua, no writers, no poets, no musicians, no siantist who would have heard about. So great ua civilisation who vould themselves as aztecs in middle if europe? Or may be your sponsors are now in a rush to write you a great history?
It's worth mentioning as well that the majority of the S-300 missiles that Russia is currently using in Ukraine have been relocated from the northwestern regions of Russia. So the Russian air defense in the region is probably very light at the moment.
Having played War Thunder, I can't wait to see what things sweden end up creating for their military. That nation was the absolute most fun to play for me in the game
I might be biased, being Swedish on my mothers side. But I don't think the Russian air force and decaying navy, mostly made up of old Soviet ships, in the Baltic Sea can win against the modern navy and air force of Sweden Which has to give the Baltic States some relief as the NATO plan for decades has been to sacrifice them to a Russian invasion of Eastern Europe because they didn't think they could re-enforce them in time to stop it Sweden has an impressive air force and a strong navy that could easily seize control of the Baltic Sea and lend aid to the Baltic States in short order Finland joining is icing on the cake as Russia has most of its nukes in the Kola Peninsula and an attack from Finland could deprive them of much of their stockpile extremely quickly. Russia has to be considering relocating their nukes Strategically, adding these two nations to NATO is a major win for the West. As it really pins Russia in and limits its naval options to almost nothing. Mostly going through the arctic circle or a single base on the pacific ocean. Neither fleet being that strong. I'd say that Russia's best naval fleets are the Baltic and North fleets.
There's been a lot of hype ove the military power of Finland...and for many good reasons. Compared to almost any country of her size, Finland's Defence forces are impressive..execpt in one area: Naval forces. However, here's where the mighty Swedish naval forces come in the picture. Being very close allies, Finland and Sweden complement each other's defence forces, especially in areas where each has an operational deficit. Finland's remarkably strong artillery and now also missile defence capability is also Sweden's protection and Sweden's strong naval forces also work in Finland's favour. Sweden's technologically very high-quality weapons development work is also great news for Finland and the whole of the Nordic region.
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Please make a video on pro democracy protests in Bangladesh. We are oppressed by illegitimate leftist government who usurped power by voter fraud.
We need a Baltic Alliance of Finland, Poland, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.
We also need a Slavic alliance of Poland, Ukrainian Czechia and Slovakia
And a Balkan alliance of Romania, Greece, Croatia and potentially Bulgaria.
So first you work together with a sketchy company that "sold noble titles", and now you work with an even more sketchy company.
@@fightforaglobalfirstamendm5617 and it will only take 1 nation like Nazi Germany to conquer these Mighty alliances
@@smiley.6534 1at off he's been doing masterworks for awhile and it's not a scam the art is regulated as a security by the SEC not like Established titles based in hong kong with loose regulation
Love the idea of the statue not just being to memorialize a dead king but serves an actual purpose to remind Swedes of something really important
It's an old tradition. In Germany, we have the Herrmannsdenkmal, which depicts Arminius(Herrmann) who won over a Roman army 2k years ago. The monument was built when France was still considered the mortal enemy of Germany and thus it's no surprise that Arminius is keeping a watchful eye towards France while holding aloft his sword.
Well this king failed to attack russia... Its might be a warning dont attack there...
As Sweden was a superpower in that time that king ruled. History teached in schools, but history have a tendensy to change to fit the narrative current told by ruling class
@@cofal79 That is not how that kind of thing works and the iconography of a ruler holding a sword pointing towards another nation is rather unquestionable.
Your post is the kind of comment made by someone who just found out what Historical Revisionism is, but hasn't quite grasped the concept.
East Germany actualy turned a statue of Friedrich II westward just to avoid any "misunderstanding"
That everything tolerates if you are enought Russophobic?
“People who do not move do not notice their chains”. Dang that line stood out. Keep up the good work. Love your channel.
One lousy quote put in the wrong context makes you hard? Damn...
@@j.langer5949 Neither it was lousy nor put in wrong context. Do you know what makes me hard? The idea of Putin supporters being excuted infront of my eyes, while they beg and cry for mercy with their fascist lousy mouth.
@@j.langer5949it’s was the intro music after the quote that’s got homie feelin all deep about it 😂
@@euroboy9188 Putin wants a way out - We'll give him one through the gallow's hatch!
@@j.langer5949 Certain quotes resonate with certain people depending on their current or past situation(s).
It is possible that @Kevin attributed that saying to a personal life experience, while those who think with their genitals end up jumping straight to erotic conclusions.
Prior to the Ukraine war, Putin demanded that Sweden should never be allowed into Nato. The Swedes got really upset and nervous about that and decided immediately to apply for membership. So, hadn’t the Russians been so callous, arrogant and outright stupid, Sweden would most likely have stayed neutral.
That's a lie. Putin is on record here on TH-cam saying that he does *not* care about Finland or Sweden joining NATO and that them joining just makes them a target if nuclear war breaks out.
Yep Putin has done more damage to Russia than is imaginable. It is almost like he is a CIA plant who is there to absolutely destroy what is left of that place and its military.
Putin will go down in history as The Idiot.
His moves always have the opposite of their intended effects.
It was only a matter of time until all of the Nordics were lobbied into NATO.
@@craigkdillon Really? Putin seems to have made short work of the Ukrainian military with only 7% of Russia's military strength. The only idiotic thing Putin did was put restraints on Russian military because he's against civilian casualties. His generals wanted Blitzkrieg.
Watching this just moments after Sweden officially joined NATO
You forgot Swedens biggest strength… The airforce, it’s the biggest in the nordics and has very modern Gripen planes which it intends to expand in numbers and the air force is what can rapidly be sent to different places in the baltics and truly contend with Russia.
Lol, last time Russian bombers flew into Swedish territory, they couldn’t get their Gripens up.
@@TheBooban False. Troll using hacked account.
@@TheBooban Fighters have been scrambled multiple times to escort Russian planes out of Swedish airspace.
It's greatest strength is allies.
@@TheBoobanYou ought to stop making a fool of yourself.
Having worked with Swedes in the past i'd be very confident in one thing: their military machine would work flawlessly. All the hardware would be in top working order and their logistics would be superb. They're a very capable and competent bunch of people.
And they don't make jokes about it. Remember, 1,000 years of Swedish humor is just the appendix to 100 years of German humor.
yeah but how much do swedes really want to be americas bitch? I mean the capable warrior types
Wrong. There were multiple war games that showed it is in disaster. The biggest of them several years ago was a laughable show.
As a Dane working with Swedes and Germans, I can attest to the above. In every other part of the world, we Danes are cold as ice. Compared to Germans and Swedes, we're apparently considered the "Italians of the North"
A lot of that was because they needed ro do it themselves, because while nominally NATO-aligned, they werent in NATO proper and simply didnt free ride on the Americans. I hope that doesnt change over time.
As someone who's a Swedish citizen while also studying towards becoming an officer in the Swedish Royal Navy, much of what is brought up in this video is both familiar and accurate. I admire your research and attention to detail and even I didn't even know the reason as to why our statue was pointing east!
We want in!!Except Erdogan are blocking us✊🏻🇸🇪🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦👍🏻
Hello , do you know if your new prime minister plans to make army mandatory in Sweden ? I also live in Sweden
How do I fight with Sweden brother
Welcome to NATO! I am very happy to have the Swedish people further allied with us in this manner. 🍻
@@dnice374 you are welcome my swedish brother
Having served as a conscript and National Guard leader in Sweden for 13 years, before I moved to the United States, I can say that Sweden has always looked east, also in practice. Sweden had a secret treaty with NATO and it wasn't much of a secret either. All units were deploying facing east in wartime and The units in the Western areas of Sweden were labeled strategic reserve. My basic training geared me toward communications position at the military district staff. A ton of what was included clearly showed that we were prepping for NATO cooperation at an early stage of a war. Same thing for a couple of my buddies who served as rangers and paratroopers on the same base.
@Anton Smirnov It depends on what you mean by always. We were one of the dominating powers in Europe for hundreds of years. That was ended by country starting conscription and our small population made us less competitive. We were Allies of France for the longest time, and then of Germany. During both World wars, we would be as neutral as we could, but ultimately being nicer to the dominating power. During the Cold War, we did have the aforementioned secret alliance. Full neutrality was not really an option and in the choice between a domineering and imprerialist West and the death and gulags of the Soviet hell hole, the choice was easy.
@Anton Smirnov Rather be a satrap of anglo-Saxons than equal to a country with a GDP per capita smaller than that of Poland or Romania. ;) Russia hasn't been so primitive since before peter the great :)
@Anton Smirnov have you even looked at the Caucasus and certain parts of European Russia? Those guys have a phenomenal birth rate while ethnic Russians are getting fewer every year.
@Anton Smirnov Dude, the UK Lost in 1945. The process started when they declared war on Germany in 1939. If you want to be even pickier, they sort of lost World War I and would actually have if it wasn't for the United States. They haven't been a world power in forever. I don't personally care about the United Kingdom and I don't understand why you do either? Russia needs to be concerned with the United States and China. Once Russia gets weak enough, China will stab them in the back...
@Anton Smirnov I would rather be rich with poor neighbours, than poor with good ones.
Furthermore, in response to someone pointing out Russia's demographic difficulties you just bury your head in the sand and say "russia will always win". Blind faith has only ever lead to disappointment, even in victory, so good luck with that
Hands down best geopolitics/war channel on youtube. Im from Papua New Guinea in the oceanic region of the world, a big island north of Australia, I continue to learn much more about the rest of the world thanks to you! Things are heating up in Europe, yall better chill, the last time a war came to my country (WW2), my ancestors saw airplanes for the first time, we were still living in the stone age lol! My country is not ready for another war and I hope things get better for all our sakes!
Lmao I have a chuckle seeing you say that technically it's true for any people still living as hunter gatherers. If I as a white person said it tho, I would be fkn castrated 😅
Hi neighbour!! 😃🙌🏻
I too have come to learn so so much more about the world since 24th Feb .
Amazing to think your family hadn’t seen planes yet. 😮
Listening to historians and Geopolitics while observing a world map is very eye opening.
Please if you haven’t heard of him already - Stephen Kotkin - is absolutely fascinating to listen to about Russia. 😉
✌🏻🇦🇺
Well if anything happens in Europe, at least you guys will be out of it except maybe trade being affected
No country is ready for another war unless it's trying to become colonial power.
Peter zeihan
You could say that Sweden has a deep rooted naval tradition but I think the airforce is their strongest card. Norway has a very advanced navy for its size though. Producing their own multi purpose smart missiles for sea to sea and sea to land missions. Some of the most advanced systems in the world atm.
The Nordic countries is more or less an alliance within the alliance. They supplement each other and it is intentional.
Swedens navy have allways been a joke, even during the viking age. It is the landforces that is good. The aireforce have never been at war.
@@thomaseriksson6256 Our land forces are a sideshow, they are there to lock down the north and respond to landings elsewhere.
But the landings shouldn't happen, since the air force and navy is tasked with taking care of them in the Baltic.
There is a reason our stocks of RBS15 missiles are massive, and we have a fighter specifically designed to take down Russian ones.
@@thomaseriksson6256 I would check on their capability much closer than you did, you might come up with a different answer.
@@thomaseriksson6256 Thats not really true, it's just not big enough to compete with the larger naval powers such as britain.
Its navy works for what purpose it serves: Protecting its interests in the baltic.
@@starcobra2575 And let's not forget Hitler decided against an invasion of Sweden in part since he thought the Swedish Navy would make resupply risky.
And don't we have a warship in a museum that toppled over because we went nuts with the amount of guns on it?
Yeah, sounds like it's always been a joke, even since Viking times...
He is either a self hating Swede or just a salty Dane.
They never seem to get the brotherly banter we for example have with the Norwegians.
They just always feel offended and respond by lashing out.
Sweden and Finland joining Nato will also dramatically change Norways and Denmarks warplanning to the better.
Sweden has roughly 45% of it's energy coming from hydro power. That's predominantly in the north, so that's one aspect I think you missed.
There is a fair amount of industry in the north. In the northern coasts all around the Botnic Sea and up in the Arctic, towns cling in a line around the coast.
Towns sprung up where the rivers met the sea so barges from the inland could meet sea-going ships. The rivers have been replaced in importance by the train nowadays but the important port towns remain.
@@SusCalvin People forget how big Sweden is. The amount of resources there have fueled civilization in the north since the Nordic Bronze Age; should Sweden actually get itself together it could be a European powerhouse, but instead it kucks to the will of Brussels.
@@bustavonnutz man, you would think Brexit would have showed people something.
Even if Sweden is less arrogant and incompetent than England
@@bustavonnutz The European Union is a perfect projection system. Let me suggest, the future of Sweden depends on its own people and politicians. If they have some good projects, they can produce them with or without EU. Same with GBR.
@@bustavonnutz You know what would really scare Putin? One combined EU army
Yes! When your Finland joining NATO video came out months ago, I was hoping that you would cover Sweden joining NATO. Thank you for the early Christmas present!
My great grandfather was in the Swedish army on Cannons, He emigrated to the USA and and after a few years joined the Union army to fight in the American Civil War where he also was on Cannons. Later in the Census of civil war veterans the census take wrote that he was almost deaf.
No wonder!
Vote in my community poll plz...
And went by the name Eric the Dovson.
Lmao
Off topic: Hi Marvin
I don't if you know but the proper way how to spell your sir name is with two s:es. The son of Carl should be spelled Carls son = Carlsson. All son-names are spelled like that in Sweden, in the old days as wall now days. :)
Funny how when you're a bad neighbour, the neighbourhood bands against you.
That is why the US has more enemies than Russia
@@xtc2v
Yeah probably.
But that's like saying Jason Statham has more hair than Bruce Willis
@@tigerpjm Not really. The population outside the collective west added together is far greater. It also has a massive chip on its collective shoulders because the west's got most of the money which is why it tends to back Russia. Its much less even than a follicle count between JS and BW?
@xtc2v
You're going to have to go find someone else if you want to debate this absurd whataboutism any further.
The Junior High common room should contain roughly the calibre of debater you're looking for.
@@tigerpjm I'm debating if you have any absolute fixed morals. It appears that when asked to justify the hypocrisy you resort to being rude because you know you have been caught out just simply taking a side
As soon as I saw the news of Sweden’s (also Finland’s) formal application, I knew the stage was set for one of the most significant, consequential developments in European geopolitical and military affairs of our time - the reverberations of which will last for a long time.
The current reality of our world is very different from just eight to ninth months previous - it’s simply insane how fast and far things can change in a matter of mere months.
great, white european destroying each other, we chinese are the one gain the advantage of it. it weakened both west and russia at once.
Thank you John Xina, very cool
It is a huge change , simply put it there is no America / Europe centrality any more . There is East as much as there is West !!
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen” - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Russian invading was't the cue for this thought?
Incredible, this channel makes all the bits I knew about geopolitical Issues fall into place, all within a few minutes. Thank You!
Commenting to highlight this excellent content. I am so grateful for the work you do - it by far outmatches any of the established media houses.
10/10
Sweden has not much of the land forces but has a good navy and powerful airforce. Finland on the other hand has a great land forces and great way to mobilize the reserves, very much the same as Israel or Switzerland.
Eh, sort of. The Swiss haven't been in a real fight in a long time. I wouldn't put them on the same level as the rest of us.
Yes, between Sweden on the sea and air and Finland in the air and on land, Russia would be fighting 2 hedgehogs that are already very well prepared via their military exercises with NATO to defend themselves, and potentially even capture territory should they want to do so. Putin has been very foolish, and was severely misinformed about the state of his armed forces.
@@CharliMorganMusic
Neither was Sweden ... more than 200 years
@@CharliMorganMusic Every swiss man serves in the military reserves. So they defo know what they are doing.
@@CharliMorganMusic FYI most military disasters occur when you underestimate the enemy
Who is NATO's Recruiter of the Year ?
You guessed right. Vladimir Putin.
Putin recruited Finland 🇫🇮
and Sweden 🇸🇪 overnight.
Good job 👏.
Greetings from Germany...🍺👋
that is, the number of troops in the northwest of Russia is not large, and this is the danger for Sweden and Finland ?! lol??
Nato-imperial machine number 1 in the world.
@@zigast3387 In the recent 15 years, Russia has sent in its military to every European neighbour (and Moldavia) that is not in the NATO - except to Finland. And you wonder why Finland wants to join NATO? 😀
Russia is unable to get friends so it seeks subjects. NATO members all made their own choise to join, none of them was ever forced. Why do you expect Russia's neighbours to sit and wait for their tanks?
And now tell me: who is the imperialist in this story?
@@BiharyGabor No one answered my question why Finland sees a threat where it does not exist, I understood, I accepted ...
You also don’t understand geopolitics if you think that the territories around Russia should be left without Russia’s attention ...
Condolences to the victims of Western education ....
@@zigast3387 You are wrong (or more likely dishonest): the answer has been given to you and your likes endless times. However, your question as formulated here is invalid because it includes a false statement: the threat _does_ exist, indeed. And I explained why. Let me repeat for you! In the recent 15 years, Russia has sent in its military to every European neighbour (and Moldavia) that is not in the NATO - except to Finland. And you wonder why Finland wants to join NATO?
Nobody thinks that the territories around Russia should be left without Russia’s "attention". However, if you believe that Russia's "attention" means imperialistic war than it is not me who has difficulties understanding geopolitics.
@@BiharyGabor Let me remind you that Finland is the brainchild of Russia, in the first place ... Second, Finland has been independent for more than 100 years at the behest of Russia, and Russia simply needs Finnish neutrality. But just the CIS countries that climbed into NATO, and want to "defend" themselves quickly from the Russian Federation, fall under the forced "physical influence" of Russia. And for 30 years after the collapse of the USSR, the West just did not have to interfere in the affairs of the CIS, if they wanted democratic changes in the Russian Federation. And in the end they forced the Russians to defend themselves.
P.S. Read "The Grand Chessboard" by Zbigniew Brzezinski, everything is clearly stated there.
My god you are so good at this. I have a love for history, geography and geopolitics in particular, so I have a strong tolerance for boring stuff. You instill a sense of je ne sais quoi into your videos to the point where I feels chills with the way you say things, the music in the background at just the right time, and your quotes, man. It's the perfect storm. Bravo.
Can second this, so many of the channels just regurgitate the same information on a topic I’ve heard 1000 times. CR makes me think in ways I wouldn’t normally and brings facts to my attention I wasn’t aware of & fascinate.
Top tier TH-cam channel!🏆
except drawing maps. He should either draw Crimea Ukrainian, or draw all occupied regions in red.
Are you his mother or girlfriend?
@@tedmoss i am his girlfriend
@@tedmoss I thought I was your mother
As a Swede this has to be the most stupid decision Russia ever made. Both us and Finland have tried so hard for 100 years to stay neutral but we just can't anymore. Gotland sure is a valuable asset. It's like an aircraft carrier just sitting there in the middle of the ocean.
I, as an American, cannot wait to see US, Swedish and British Jets taking off from the Airbases that are gonna be built there.
You think we should build a big ass statue showing the Scandinavian+Baltic allied Nations…
or is that too corny?
That’s right, we have worked hard to stay neutral and when Russian is at its weakest power, oh now you want to join NATO? Now _that_ is stupid. Swedes very stupid decision to lose neutrality.
@@TheBooban Why would Sweden be neutral when it comes to safeguarding its own security? It would be far better if Russia was neutral and kept within its own borders.
@@TheBooban Yeah, Boob-head over here really doesn’t get the bigger picture.
Joining NATO comes with a lot of perks, more than just the mutual defense.
An especially important one is it puts Sweden and Finland on the list for Military Technology exports from the US.
What about unchecked American power? Who's going to crush that? America's globalism is the real threat to the human species and life.
Enslaved to fiat currency debt system, federal reserve printing money from thin air backed by literally nothing, enslave every single tribe of human beings on Earth to their debt system, spread their misery to the world, their poisons, McDonald's, Coca Cola high fructose corn syrup soy diets, vapid, soulless, braindead "culture" worship of the rich and famous, tyrants who kill millions in sovereign nations for oil, gas, israel. The worst empire that has ever existed in all recorded human history. They have military bases surrounding virtually every country and zone on planet Earth. If you don't like their system they kill your leader, call you a dictatorship and invade your country.
drowning in debt and misery with stagnant wages, profiteering drug companies, third world backwards education systems, eroding infrastructure, diminishing middle class, widening income inequality, endless wars that only create terrorists and destroy the west, and worship of the rich and famous and Hollywood bread & circuses for the vaccinated masses
perhaps time to have a 'referendum' in kaliningrad...
This would be an awesome idea. And in true Russian Style, have "Citizens" of Kaliningrad join the City to prepare the voting.... I am pretty sure Poland could spare 100K "Russians" to make this happen.
Maybe time to relocate the people of kaliningrad back to the motherland and do some testing of dirty nukes there, it is russian territory after all.
@@BernhardWelzel No, it should go to germany
@Max შემიწყალე Königsberg will never be the same though unfortunately, after what happened to it in WW2. 😞
@@Maltheus_ yeah it will never be Nazi again
I’m a Finn. We have a saying that “The enemy comes from the East. Or the west, which would only mean the Russians come through Sweden.”
This is hilarious. Finnish humor 👌
It could be true. Finland joined NATO 4.4. 2023
Sweden is still waiting....
Actually I wish Turkey and Hungary will ratify Sweden's application very soon.
that sayng makes no sense....
Regarding the intro with how the Russian threat is part of Swedish culture; This is true.
My parents living through the cold war had a constant "Red Danger" looming over them. And growing up i was told "Ryssen kommer" (The Russians are comming) both seriously and half-hearted as a joke.
I never really believed this would be the case as it would just be madness. And turns out i was both right and wrong. Russia did indeed become the agressor and it was indeed madness.
here in Ukraine we did not believed... well, did not want to believe russia will restart a war even after Crimea occupation. Unfortunately, that didn't help(
Om Kris eller kriget kommer...
You know what they said.
All messages that the resistance are to cease ARE FALSE!!
This saying was also used in Romanian: "Vin rușii"
Did they come to you in Sweden?
Порошенко на стадионе кричал ,что дети Донбасса будут сидеть в подвалах,а наши дети пойдут в школу.вы поддерживаете нацисткий режим Украины.позор вам Швеция👎
Gotland, coming back in history again. It was also one of the main centers of the Hanze trade organisation of the early midlle ages.
5:44 : Small correction, the DW (Deutsche Welle) article on Sweden formally announcing it wants to join NATO as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian War was on 16 May 2022 (nearly 7 months ago), *not* 2020. Sweden probably was hesitant at that time pre-war on abandoning neutrality, but looks like its hand was forced.
Nonetheless, a great video, and one great time YT’s algorithm works to suggest new channels to subscribe to.
Generally Sweden has been on the fence of NATO for many years, cooperating in lots of exercises. Formally joining isn't that big of a step. While public opinion has been against joining, to my knowledge it's never been a particularly strong opinion for most people. There has also been a significant amount of people who think joining is just a matter of publicly declaring it rather than any real practical change.
So yes, "hesitant" is probably the right word to use. "Forced" probably less so, and more that it's just time to do it and that was the final push.
The policy of neutrality was abandoned when Sweden joined the EU.
100% that we where hesitant, and even now as things are only ramping up and Putin's madness is only becoming clearer we still have a lot of people who are against joining NATO. But I wouldn't say our hand was forced so much as it is a strategic choice. If we join NATO now we get to have quite a lot of input on how military development will happen in our own country, things like where bases will be placed, how we work with the rest of the nordic countries, etc.
But if we end up being forced into NATO should Russia turns its guns on us, we suddenly will have a lot less say in the matter as we will be too valuable to risk and too many members will push for what is correct in their opinion. Not to mention that, while we want to be part of NATO for the sake of mutual protection and co-operation with a military superpower, we are also aware of history and how said military superpower have... "helped" in the past. We want to co-operate with US and EU troops, co-operate being the key word here.
Thank you for a great video. What got me most interested when reviewing the military build up was actually the airforce. 60 new Gripen and updating everything to Gripen E will amount to 160 fusilages. That's one hell of a force, add to that the new patriot missiles and a new battalion of loiter drones and we're talking a serious build up before even taking the army and navy in to account.
The fact Russia places more priority in militarising the Artic(where a traditional invasion is impossible), Ukraine and the Caucasus, instead of its border with NATO shows how much it really sees NATO as a threat, especially because that area of Belarus and the Baltic have been the most dangerous and traditional path to an invasion of Russia in History, it is where the terrain is less defensible, only Minsk and the Gates of Smolensk stand in the way.
@Pedro Requio Thus, their grip on Belarus.
Yes, unfortunately you see this as a *good* thing when seeing anything as a *threat* usually leads to BAD things. When was the last thing a country and its people acted reasonably and sanely when being under threat? Can you name a single country anywhere in the world which has reacted positively when it says it's under threat??
Didn't you read history? HOW do you think Hitler came to power in Germany? Mostly because the Germans felt the Versailles Treaty was harsh and unfair, that Germany's economy was threatened by countries which dictated the terms of trade and that they felt marginalized. Do you think Hitler and the nazis just materialized in a vacuum and that they gained huge popularity out of the blue? Do you think that other dictators and bad presidents come to power without the support of angry people in the country??
If the victors of WWI wasn't so hellbent on punishing Germany we would never have seen Hitler and WWII.
And now you're saying it's a good thing to have Russia feel threatened? Let's threat them even more! Hey, let's even talk about an *invasion* (!!) because we're fighting for peace and justice... Yeah, I wonder how many times in history an invasion of another country has been justified the same way. The USA does it wherever it goes, even for the countries which aren't even a remote threat to them.
You know what? I hope there will be a war. I hope it's prolonged. Then short-sighted fools like yourself will feel the effects when everything you take for granted comes in short supply and the cost of war puts the already pushed tax-payers into going berserk.
If you want to support the Ukrainian people, by all means keep doing so. Sending them help and support is infinitely more useful than you clowns playing with your toy soldiers and utterly lacking the ability to see conflicts from any side but your own. How much help have *you* given the Ukrainian people?
I utterly loathe Putin's Russia. But to think that the likes of him and his supporters will back down when feeling more threatened?? No, don't expect a desperate man to act rationally. It's also a good idea to look up your *own leaders* and see what's all this urgency for anyway? And what's *really* at stake here? Surely you don't believe this is some "noble crusade" for freedom we're talking about here? No, when it comes to war and the driving force behind them follow the money and who gains what.
@@paulallen8109 you managed to completely miss the point of the comment you are replying to! The fact that Russia has only stationed a very low number of troops and hardware near their existing borders means that they consider the threat of invasion from NATO is nonexistent. The comment is simply pointing out that one of the reasons Russia cited for invading Ukraine, NATO expansion, is a lie they came up with to justify imperialist land grab! Get a grip dude!
@@paulallen8109 having seen your other comments, I can only assume that you are from a Russian troll farm
@@paulallen8109 Reading Pedro's text, I believe he's saying that Russia is actually not feeling threatend by NATO countries, despite their narrative. Their actions show their intent. He did edit his text, so it might be different than what you read though
Welcome Sweden 🇸🇪 There would be no need for NATO if Russia was a peaceful neighbor.
Thanks 👍
Yeah Russia didn't play well there, it kinda backfired 😂
Thank you! And so very true! If Russia, or well, Putin in this case, wasn’t so stuck in the idea of a new Soviet Union and invading sovereign neighbors, we wouldn’t even have needed to consider joining NATO. But as is, I see more positives than negatives with us joining. I’m Swedish
Russia would be a peaceful neighbour if there was no NATO
@@mpriymak NATO was created is the first place because of the soviet union/Russia. Read the history of NATO please mpriymak
@@craighughes2191 To simplify, NATO was created to "keep Germans down, keep Americans in, and keep Russians out"
As long as the world's most powerful military alliance (and an instrument to US hegemony) exists, it will pose an existential threat to all other independent and sovereign states...
Thank you for this video! I have seen much more videos like this about us Finns joining Nato, sometimes I’ve felt like Sweden’s membership has gone more under the radar besides Turkey’s ever-changing demands.
A key factor to also keep in mind, is that Sweden's geographic and cultural brother, Denmark, is a founding member of NATO and have had a sort of military pact/alliance for a long time despite Sweden's official claim to be military neutral. But the neutrality has only truly extended to not starting or partaking aggressively in wars. In terms of communications and intel, Sweden has very much been geared for keeping an eye on the eastern shores of the Baltic, and should push come to shove, a military alliance with NATO would be extremely likely even without them officially joining. But the fact that Sweden now officially wants to join NATO puts further pressure on the Baltic and thoroughly eliminates Russian relevance in these waters - which is effectively the only consistent waterway access point that Russia holds, due to their northern shores being frozen solid most of the year. Even their black sea access is greatly minimized now with Turkish sanctions against Russian war vessels.
The nordics are brothers and sisters and can colabruate alot and have same mindset
Denmark and norway and brothers Sweden are at best cousins. In everyhting but language Sweden is much tighter bound to Finland and even Estonia and Latvia.
@@DaDunge If you want to get specific then the subregions of Sweden have varying cultural relations, where yes the north eastern parts of Sweden are definitely closer tied to Finland, but that is not the case for many other parts of Sweden - and namely the fact that Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have historically been under a common rule and all considered a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, is a tie that Sweden and Finland can't match. Yes there has also been rivalry in equal measure, but similar to how brothers fight, so have our countries. Scandinavia is a big cultural union, always will be. Every Nordic country is closely related in one form or another.
@@Real_MisterSir Nope wrong again. The crowns of the three kingdoms were for a time held by one person who ruled from Denmark but they never stopped being three separate Kingdoms. And I live in the very south of Sweden have all my life and I feel a lot more kinship with Finland than with Denmark. Heck I feel more positively towards Germany than towards Denmark.
@@DaDunge And you're absolutely free to do that. Won't change the fact that most of us regard each other as brothers.
This week's vocabulary lesson is "Riparian" an adjective that describes a body of water (typically a lake or river) and its surrounding lands.
The use here in the context of an area of the sea is not included in many dictionaries, but fits in the narrative that the Baltic may be a NAO lake.
S are when you learn word use from a non-nat8ve speaker. I had always thought of riparian as freshwater but it can also be tidal. Learn something new every day. I learned the word while watching Keeping Up Appearances, a British sitcom. An arrogant wannabe hosted a riparian picnic.
Thinking the word “littoral” would be more appropriate, but I’m not going to make a big deal out of that. The video as always is fantastic.
@@TheRagingPlatypus I also learned the term from Hyacinth. 😄
"additional 30000 soldiers by 2025" 2025 also coincidentally being the year i am eligible for military service 😦
You’re in the Army now Son!
Time to step up for your country!
Have fun :D
@@wederMaxim I’ll do so willingly and gladly.
I believe in maintaining the order of things, lest those filthy Russian Mongols or those Riceeyes over in China get any funny ideas.
In the case of China we can easily cut their oil lifeline from the sea, and watch as they collapse within months.
@@wederMaxim why don't you join your "glorious" ruSSian army and fight against the interests of the USA then, boy? Ukrainians would be more than happy to make fertilizer out of you.
Considering only the Swedes have proven themselves (at the moment) capable against US hardware, then them joining NATO would be a bonus.
And take into acount that Ukraine are beating Russia with old Soviet gear and Nato gear from the 90´s... Russia will not stand a chance against either Finland or Sweden without Nato, and with Nato they simple are outclassed 100%
@@larswhitt1549 Agree either Finland or Sweden by themselves could take the sad remainder of the russian military out at this point and it would be easy.
@@larswhitt1549 lol russia is beating shit of ukranke and nato from 60s wepons
In war games, they managed to sink a US carrier USS Ronald Reagan. Their subs are very good because they are good at being quiet.
The Russian apologists frequently mention that NATO was meant to fight Russia, but they leave out *why*.
That's because they don't know why. They're just paranoid. Maybe too much vodka has something to do with it.
A bloated nostalgic sense of national pride makes them feel entitled to be a prime NATO target.
@@mw7851Common sense makes them feel to be a prime NATO target. You're one of these fools who still believes that NATO countries were worried about Iran? Please...
Because historically Russia has constantly been a main target of conquest for western European countries
Putler is such a genius, he is 10 universes ahead of us!
he's master od 4d chess
Unfortunately he has forgotten about our universe
@@zamath1895 what does that nonsense even mean??
@@kelumo7981 Every chess game is 4D. It is actually a joke from people ignorance.
@@kelumo7981 if you want to talk about it seriously, let's do that, why not)
stupid decision #1: threaten former allies to use force when they want to distant themselves from russia
stupid decision #2: steal, steal, steal, steal everything instead of developing own country, enforcing more and more countries to distant themselves from russia
stupid decision #3: occupy Crimea
stupid decision #4: start a war and spend about 100k dead for nothing, which started russian cancellation activities all over the world
is that enough nonsense?)
Im in Sweden, theres been day and night military drills in my town for three weeks, mortars and machine gun fire echo at least every hour. Things are definetly happening here.
As has been the case for nearly 80 years, NATO is a defensive alliance. By joining NATO, Sweden and Finland together recognize that mere non-alignment, even if robust, is an inadequate position to hold in that neighborhood.
“Defensive” alliance 😂😂😂😂😂😂
@@wederMaxim well it is... nobody is forced to join NATO and the main directive is to respond to attacks. However, I do agree NATO has been used as a USA foreign interest's extendable arm for quite a lot of time now.
No its not a defensive alliance, its an military alliance. Ask Afghanistan, Lybia or Jugoslavia how defensive Nato are :)
@@peterjensen5954 we can ask, but nato alliance was not triggered for these war. An example would be italy that was there just as a peace keeping force under ONU. Same for Germany, sice they cannot join in offensive wars by law
@@peterjensen5954 Afghanistan chose to train, arm, support and hide Folk who deliberately attacked a NATO member multiple times. Yugoslavia thought they could go back 60 years to when Ethnic Cleansing and Mass Murder was an Acceptable Policy. I don't know what Libya did, I think you have to ask the French about that one. And hardly anyone from NATO was interested in attacking Iraq. It IS a Defensive Alliance. Everyone is well aware Russia has literally thousands of Nuclear Warheads. No-one WANTS a fight with Russia, but Putin has an annoying habit of invading all of his neighbours unprovoked. Ask Chechnya, Georgia, Moldova or Ukraine. Twat.
Good report. Nice to spotlight the always sensible Swedes. Thanks
The amount of harm the Putin regime has done to Russia is absolutely incredible...
And the amount of harm NATO countries have done to Russia so that somebody like Putin comes to power in the first place is equally incredible.
Because the Versailles Treaty was so fair and just somebody like Hitler just came to power - through democratic means no less - out of the blue... Right. Pardon my sarcasm.
Learn from history. Or be doomed to repeat it.
Tyrants never emerge where people feel safe and secure. When there is a threat, be it an inner or outer, people will support a "strong man". People who feel threatened tend to rally behind nationalism and religion. Often it's one and the same thing in certain countries. Nationalism and religion are very dangerous things. They offer comfort and security when there is a threat. Strength in numbers. Goodbye individualism and free thought.
BUT there has to be certain extraneous factors which led to those things in the first place. And you'd be amazed how many times that has to do with the meddling of other countries - mostly those who require the natural resources of that country.
I've talked to enough people from African and Asian countries (in person!) who describe the reason for their civil war and what it's all really about. You'd be amazed how many times some of your noble NATO countries do absolutely nothing as long as the flow of the natural riches of said country flow freely... They'll only react if the "wrong people" seize control of those.
Ever studied the history of 20th century Iran? Reza Shah was the leader of Iran from the 1920's to 1941. Turns out he had sympathies towards Nazi Germany who made him promises his country could keep most of its oil. Well, obviously the British didn't like that (they got most of their oil from here prior to the American entry in the war) so they invaded Iran and depose the Shah (king).
After the war the Iranian people democratically voted Muhammad Mossaddegh to be prime minister. He "unfortunately" (sarcasm) had this idea that Iran's oil could be used to help the people. Unfortunately (more sarcasm) the British didn't like that and orchestrated a coup in 1953 with the support of the CIA and overthrew him. In his place the son of the overthrown king of 1941 was made total leader. Muhammad Reza Pahlavi (last shah of Iran).
What an obedient puppet he was. A true yes-man. Then by the 70's he started thinking and realized that for all his gargantuan wealth his own people were still poor. Then he suddenly realized he sold the oil in his own country for peanuts and tried to change that by opposing those who purchased the oil... Oh dear. Soon enough his own people began hating him. Just remember that there was no freedom of speech in Iran and nobody could write or publish anything opposing the Shah. Enter the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Now everything was in free-fall. Again, like I said, what does scared and lost people rally behind. Nationalism and religion. Enter the fundamentalist Muslims and their Sharia Law state under Ruhollah Khomeini.
My point with Iran is: Do you honestly think that all that British and American meddling in Iran for 50 years and who got a certain price for oil and who controlled *didn't matter* ??
Do you think that the Versailles Treaty and the victorious allies pillaging Germany for coal and other commodities in the early 1920's had nothing to do with the rise of Hitler??
So why do you believe that Russia just started supporting Putin out of the blue?? He came to power because most Russians felt worried and scared prior to him. And much of that fear had basis in the meddling and demands of your "freedom-loving" countries. That "freedom" only goes as long as whatever natural commodity is steadily provided.
So good luck to you if you think this all just started with Putin.
@@paulallen8109 What has NATO ever done to Russia specifically?
NATO didn’t make the Soviet Union collapse. Neither did NATO cause the chaos of the 90s. 80 years of totalitarianism came back to bite the Russians in their asses. NATO didn’t make Boris Yeltsin break the constitution, destroy Russian democracy, and destroy the economy through importing shock therapy economists.
Russia hates NATO for the sole reason that NATO doesn’t allow Russia to oppress other Eastern Europeans anymore. That’s it.
And your point about Germany is nonsense. If the reason Hitler rose to power is because Germany was treated too harshly after WW1, then why was there no second Hitler after WW2, when Germany was treated a hundred times harsher and essentially destroyed as a nation? Germany wasn’t treated too harshly by Versailles, it was treated too leniently. Same with Russia. We should have cut them out of our economies forever, rather than foolishly thinking that free trade would cause Russians to abandon the authoritarianism inherent to their nation.
Long term russia will no longer be part of the global economy, relying on China like a big North korea.
The Russian people welcomed it with open arms
For the last three decades we had this saying in Finland: Sweden will defend it`s land & intrests until the last Finn! 😉 Im glad our wester neighbour will pick up the slack, and become the western Big brother that we all knew it could be.🤟
I read that for the first time we had exercises together were Swedish troops were under the complete command of finnish commanders. I'm sure we'll see muuuch cooperation in the future between our two countries. Woho :) Lets go brother!
Edit: Pretty sure Sweden would send in forces to help the finns right if Russia was to invade?
@@kristofferhellstrom you did not learn much from the last war
It is a standing joke but abit unfair. The only reason Sweden never joined NATO after WWII was because Finland could not join and Sweden did not want to leave Finland alone against Russia. Also Sweden had by far the largest military in the Nordics during the cold war. For this reason.
@@kelvindenize3940 that has changed, in 1949 ( might be wrong year) Sweden and Finland signed a very important piece of paper that states that if either is attacked the other is legaly forced to come to the aid of the one under attack.
Basicly were both going to war if someone attacks us.
@@nenasiek That might be so, but as the UK ignored the attack on Poland and Sweden ignored the attack on Norway and Finland...you might trust it but I dont think it will work when tested.
Wow Caspian Report this might be my favourite video of yours yet. You're a total inspiration and actually because of seeing your success I've decided to start making videos too! Keep grinding, your hard work clearly pays off!
Love your videos bro!
Vote in my community poll plz...
I love ghetto versions of caspian report
agreed
I've always admired Swedish hardware such as the Grippen and Gotland class subs. Welcome to the NATO club!
I hope...
You may want to look up the Visby class stealth corvettes too.
@@DaDunge I just did, they are pretty cool boats!
Big respect to Sweden 🇸🇪🇬🇧
🇸🇪🤝🏻🇬🇧
Just want to say that I have the highest appreciation for your content. It's always insightful, pertinent and well explained.
1:00 Correction: The Åland Islands are an autonomous part of the Republic of Finland
Sweden has a military base there
edit: I am wrong lol, idk where I heard that from
@@bighillraft Åland is demilitarised. This means that there may be no military presence and that the Islands may not be fortified.
@@bighillraft That would be Gotland.
@@bighillraft They have not. Åland is Finish not Swedish🤣
@@hermaeusmora4874 There is a russian consulate on the island specifically to oversee that. They own a plot of land for it.
Some of the island residents wanted to start a volunteer unit. I don't think it got approved.
During wartime, the plans would be different.
Exceptional analytical content as always, thank you very, very much!
Yes Sweden joining Nato would crush Russian power, even though Ukraine has been crushing russian power for the past 8 months according to the same class of ding dongs
Thanks for making a video about my country. I did my military on that island Gotland before it was demilitarized. Back in those days I couldn’t imagine a military conflict involving that peaceful island.
I wish this video should have emphasized the peaceful mindset of the people in Sweden. Sweden is a country that depends on peace, trade and cooperation across borders.
every country depends on peace, trade and cooperation across borders.
@@robosergTV But not Putin. He can only deal with other gangsters, just look at his allies.
I just want to appreciate this amazing youtube channel! I watch 200 great channels but nothing excites me more than your high quality geopolitical videos!
Caspian Report is the only channel from which I've chosen to get notifications of new episodes. It is the best.
Me in little ol' Stockholm: "Wait, we could do what?"
Hahaha Samma här!
Great content !! Just to be honest; there is Finland buffering Sweden against the enemy with the biggest field artillery now in western Europe, also with conscripts as always has been, like not in Sweden, so there is a Nordic security (with Norway) that were are safe. Majority of finns have military training up to 1 year for a reason and STILLL; 105 years independent since 1917.
finland being bufferzone for both swedish and ruskies: 1st being swedish bufferzone, then tsar russia for swedish and eventually back to swedish bufferzone.
and reason for russia being so western fobia/''fearfull'' , is sweden.
As a Finn, let's be honest: Russia has much more artillery than Finland, what we have is a good start only, and those need ammo too.
@@iam5085 western artilery is superior in accuracy. Russians lost a lot of their artilery due to counter fire and it shows in numbers as of today in ukraine. Also You would have nato airpower. I think my country(Poland) wouldnt miss a chance to throw something in too :)
Another excellent video. Would love to see a lengthy Caspian Report 2022 - recapping the year that was🤔 I'm sure you aren't stuck for geopolitical topics. 😁👍
Once again I'd like to thank Vladimir Putin, as NATO salesman of the Post-Soviet Era. Before his vanity project in Ukraine many people were beginning to question the viability of NATO as an antiquated structure, but after February 24th there is no doubt in its necessity.
I like how the only city with the special letters of the Swedish alphabet are not missing is Gävle for some reason.
"Jag måste se till att Gävle blir rättstavat".
That's just because it's such an insignificant town that it doesnt need a english name :D And everyone knows that Gothenburg is the real capitol of Sweden around the world anyway...
@@theswedenguy4647 It isn't a town, it's a city which is in fact the 13th largest in Sweden, also I have never heard anyone call Gothenburg the "real capital of Sweden"
my son turned me onto this channel and I love it ...Thank You
Gotland is basically one of the biggest aircraft carriers in the world. Its just a bit immobile and and made of dirt. ;)
Maybe so, but it has the advantage of being _virtually_ unsinkable ... 🙂🙃🙂 Fun fact - Great Britain became renamed as 'Airstrip One' in Orwell's 1984.
The production quality of your videos is insane, I am surprised that I can watch them for free
if the "good quality" product is free then you are the product...
Vote in my community poll plz..
@@nsd1169 it's a good trade tho,I watch a pretty short ad (in comparison to tv ads) in exchange I get to watch a fire video
@@Geopolitics_Explained I reported you for spamming. "Hijacking" other youtube channels' comment sections is not a good look. There are better ways to grow than parasitic ones.
@@nsd1169, what a weak and banal quote. Just pointless
There is this funny aspect of modern international relations where nations that find themselves unaligned between western and Authoriterian states often attempt at national sovereignty, self-determination and independence. The thing is that those are things the west champions. When states like China and Russia speak on how much European and the US impose their will on the world and specifically interfere with them the interference is as often as not preventing classical imperialism ie explicit territorial expansion.
In seeking independence states like Ukraine, Finland and Sweden are pushed into NATO by Russia's imperialistic tendencies.
Similar things are and have occurred with China and it's neighbors.
The liberal democracies of the world are winning at the great game by 1. shaping the game and setting the rules. And 2. Letting the self chosen opponents on plays backfire.
I think Ukraine deserves most of the credit for this revival. A side or arguably primary objective of Russia's invasion was to undermine the current "rules based" aka western dominant world order and indirectly set the stage for China's invasion of Taiwan or numerous other rogue states that are currently held back by said world order. Ik this is supposed to be a neutral geopolitics analysis channel but from a partisan perspective we really have Ukraine to thank for foiling the first step towards ushering in a new pre-WW2-esque barbaric world order
Then why was Vietnam attacked. All this talk about democracy and high moral ground is the bullshit west always talks. If US really values freedom of others then why it is occupying Puerto Rico, Hawaii
Your commentary is pure irony
@@JN-wr9he True, A big irony but still, personally I agree with is point of view and you see the actions of several nations acting accordingly like he says
Also, NATO and the West remain a free choice by countries, not something imposed upon them. That was illustrated when France quit NATO in the 1960s. It was free to do so, and later chose to rejoin.
And it's often pretty cheap insurance to buy, most of the time.
I have enjoyed the comments on this video as much as it's content. It was especially interesting hearing from the Swedes themselves assessing the information provided in the video and adding to it.
Unless you are a millionaire, then proceeds to show the palace in Baku 😂 It hit hard
He is from baku
The old statue of the king with a sword pointing East towards Russia is pretty telling. All these countries have had to fight off invading russians it seems for all time just like Ukraine is having to do to this day unfortunately.
Mmmm.. True
after ukraine baltics are next. atlast so they say
@@naapsulusmurmurusmurmurus2392 Mmm.. True
The north is sparsely populated because its cold as hell. As a side note, Swedish rock bands have become a thing in recent years. I am particularly fond of Sabaton. Rock on Sweden.
Not in recent years. You're just late to the game :P
Awwww, man, ever seen Sabaton live? They blow the roof off every goddamn time. Their closing number the first time I saw them (Metal Crüe) might genuinely be my favourite live performance I've ever seen, certainly once you factor in the atmosphere created by their incredible fans.
@@kristofferhellstrom
Lol, probably. I didn’t know until Sabaton became big time. Before that I hadn’t heard anything out of Sweden since Abba. Any other Swedish bands I should check out?
@@Pineappolis I wouldn’t doubt it. I’ll check out if they’re touring the USA this coming year. A lot of bands schedule winter months in the south like Florida, Georgia, Arizona, etc, and progressively move farther north during spring and summer.
Dude the quotes you give after every introduction are priceless
There was a meeting between the US, Japan and Australia yesterday. You always have to have a plan.
China-Taiwan situation maybe...?
QUAD nations minus India because they can't be counted on when it actually matters anymore.
"The perpetual danger coming from Russia"
Rarely have a short sentence been more true
typical fool
Russia must be defeated partitioned and have its nuclear arsenal decommissioned so to end this threat to humanity permanently.
@@SirAntoniousBlock the biggest threat are anglo saxons and j*ws
I as a Swede do not want to see us be a part of NATO.
Same here, we have enough moochers with what we got, US should pull out let you guys fight your own battles.
Nobody wants to be part of nato..they force us. Managed to lobby the egos of local politicians. But we don't want them. Go home, nato!
@@johnbattle7518 the thing is, we don't want battles. You want battles as you have an expensive military industry to feed and maintain. So you look for conflicts all over to world to start and push the need for war. Wish that usa will put their energy and money into something better for humanity rather than the pockets of a couple of psychopaths dreaming of killings.
@Adele D LOL we've done .ore for humanity post WW2 than any country on the planet. Besides being one of the most generous countries in the world. We've made advancements in medicine technology you are currently using right now from your computer, internet smartphone, and TH-cam.
We prevented Western Europe from becoming communists including your country, which indirectly benefited from both the Marshal plan and NATO.
Again, I believe in pre WWII, isolationism I would have gone into Afghanistan destroyed the Taliban killed Omar and Bin Laden and left. I don't have a problem with covert operations to kill or capture threats to America. I don't have a problem with the US keeping shipping lanes open as it benefits us. You getting a benefit from it as well is pretty much just a convenience as far as I'm concerned. Kill the Iranian general that was killing Americans is something I also agree with. After that Russia could have all of you for all I care.
no1 really wants to go to war
but Russia will bring war to you even if u don't want it
Be prepared at least and stay safe :)
Sweden pretty much has as many jet fighters as Russia do, just as one nation with 10 million
Where did you get that from?
Sweden as far as I know has less then 100.
I think Russia has more then that
@@DR-ib2yg yes russia has the numbers but sweden is quality >quantity
I always make these kinds of comments under CaspianReport because it's always the case. Here we go again:
I've my thesis deadline in *2 days* and have to work to finish it. But then Shirvan uploads a video and I say "thesis can wait"
Lol, good luck!! What's it about ?
I've got to do th laundry. That's bad enough.
@@the-quintessenz 🤣🤣👍👍
@@t.miller8456 Thanks, it's about renewable energy solutions in the context of a European island municipality.
@@the-quintessenz You've got this!!
As an American 🇺🇸 I welcome Sweden into our NATO alliance. Come on in we’d love you guys. 🇸🇪 🇺🇸
Always interesting to have your country analyzed by an outsider, thank you for an interesting video.
“For those who don’t move, won’t notice their chains” very nice quote that can sum up a lot of what is happening to the world these times.
Very nice quote but didn’t really mean anything. “Those who try to move, only to realize their ankles are chained, assisting that their decision to move was never possible to begin with @.
”Hur svenska stålet biter, Kom, låt oss pröva på! Ur vägen, moskoviter! Friskt mod, I gossar blå!”
"The end of humanity was not due to the march of soldiers. Boys loading artillery, manning the missle systems aimed for those to be robbed of existence.
It ended back when the Politician smiled"
~Ivanovic Veselov, 1987
A sad reality indeed.
Yeah like entire populations didn't support wars. Like Europeans during ww 1 or Americans in Iraq
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl Politicians smiling is not the start of the war, it's the start of inciting the population to start a war.
🎉🍾🥂🍸🍷🍺🥳
It's quite remarkable that Sweden's centuries long neutrality was able to survive Hitler and Stalin, but not Putin.
With Sweden finally joining NATO and turning the Baltic sea into a NATO lake, the war in Ukraine already constitutes a resounding strategic defeat for Russia, even were its forces to miraculously reach Lviv tomorrow(which for the record, they never will).
I’m quite interested in the growth of NATO. The more powerful allies we have, the better we will be able to protect ourselves from Russia. Russia is not going to stop at Ukraine, and they probably have plans to go further. Increasing NATO’s combat capabilities is the best thing we can do right now to prepare for any danger coming our way.
the quotes you use are very good, where do you get them from?😌
Sweden choose to shut down many of its regiments and bases during the 90s since the "soviet danger" was no more. This is one of the biggest mistakes that they could do and now we have to rebuild everything nearly from scratch. As a swede i simply hope that service will become fully mandatory again.
You don't know how good it is to read that as a Finn. Sometimes we were laughed at for having mandatory service for all men, especially during the more stable times. It was indicating that we are preparing for conventional warfare, which people swore to be a thing of the past. After Armenia-Azerbaijan, Ukraine-Russia and the looming China-Taiwan war, everyone seems to be with our decision. A tiny and hyper expensive professional army (basically a peacekeeping force) can't get the job done.
Another amazing video. One if my favorite TH-cam channels and in my opinion, one of the best on TH-cam. Keep up the good work!
Big fan from Libya 🇱🇾 keep it up
How are things post Gadaffi?
@@tonyromano6220 not good sadly 🥲
Libyan cheering for NATO lol. I needed a good laugh. Thank you.
@@oliversmith2129 who said im cheering for nato lol
Finland joined NATO
Sweden Let's gooooooooooooooooooooooo
Don’t ever forget that the nordic countries are like one Big country if we got a threat from the east. Norway and Denmark already in Nato, but should come to our defense the same day. Norway has a huge navy capasity along with Sweden if you compare the size of the countries to larger ones. Finland has one of the strongest armys in Europe built up for many years because of the long border with Russia. Swedish airforce is really hightech and advanced and have a great military industri that can produce massiv of weapons if needed. Right now the handweapon ”Carl Gustaf” is a great tool in the ukrainian army, in fact one of the best in the world right now, of that kind, and the ukrainians said the weapon was a turningpoint in the war. Besides NATO the nordic countries is like an allians of it’s own. A threat to one country is a threat to all of us, simple as that. Small countries, yes, but hightech developed countries! Russia can’t even handle Ukraine, and why then just think about to invade four allied countries in the north… I think Putin will see Crimea in the hands of Ukraine next year, and if he is smart (but he isn’t) he should withdraw troops right now to end the war and maybe then still could have control over Crimea and loose the rest… Donbass etc… 🇸🇪🇩🇰🇫🇮🇳🇴🇮🇸= stronger forces than what you think, bye👊🏋️♀️🥊
The great advantage if Russia over the history is that our enemies always underestimated us. So thank you very much that you do always again the same mistakes. Really very nice from you to support our great history to beat one European idiot after another
Love your videos man, keep them coming!
As a Dane it pains me to say it... but I'm happy we're getting Sweden into NATO.
Velkommen, gutter!
You can say it, we don't understand you anyways!
Vihlkohmahn guhtaaah
Tack men fan att vi måste arbeta med er nu. :/
And now it's Danes and Norsemen's turn to say: you can write it, we can't read it anyways!
@@benghazi4216 That's quite alright, not everyone is blessed with language skills. I blame your parents.
Last time I was this early Sweden and Russia were still at war
Putin knows that Russia is not a country actually, it's just a militarized gas station that can't produce even a primitive electric device like an electric kettle. That's why he wants to grab not only the new lands, but qualified people as well to boost Russia's economy. Me and my dad are from Kiev, my dad used to work as an engineer for Soviet military - he tested sonars against NATO submarines. Many Ukrainian engineers worked for the space program of USSR, the well known Ukrainian Korolev sent Yuri Gagarin to the Space. Russia wants to grab all the resources it could sniff - lands, soil, people, water reserves, wheat, grain. If Russia fails to grab the new resources, it will eventually collapse
Next fairy tale from urkanian? Following your "historical " books ukraine us older than the monkeys from which we all evolutionated. The point is if you are so great and old country, how fid itt vote you could hide so well yourself in the middle of Europe over 2000 years? No agreement with any country before 1991, no historical map with ua, no writers, no poets, no musicians, no siantist who would have heard about. So great ua civilisation who vould themselves as aztecs in middle if europe? Or may be your sponsors are now in a rush to write you a great history?
Thank you😃 for sharing this. Especially with maps.
Sweden love them love all Scandinavia
Sweden has the best industrial defence industry and a major arms exporter
Realtively the best for a such a small country
Usa
Russia
China
UK
France
Italy
All export and produce lot more
@@mattia8327 Contribution for their size is one way the NATO nations compare eachother.
It's worth mentioning as well that the majority of the S-300 missiles that Russia is currently using in Ukraine have been relocated from the northwestern regions of Russia. So the Russian air defense in the region is probably very light at the moment.
My favorite content on TH-cam. Thanks Shirvan
Having played War Thunder, I can't wait to see what things sweden end up creating for their military. That nation was the absolute most fun to play for me in the game
Putin really shot himself in the foot by invading Ukraine lmao
Kudos to him being NATO's best salesman
Forgot to mention the Swedish airforce! Some real capable aircraft! Thanks for sharing!
really well illustrated video, loved the tense music
You know, it was Finland's idea to join NATO. Not Sweden's, but Finland's
I might be biased, being Swedish on my mothers side. But I don't think the Russian air force and decaying navy, mostly made up of old Soviet ships, in the Baltic Sea can win against the modern navy and air force of Sweden
Which has to give the Baltic States some relief as the NATO plan for decades has been to sacrifice them to a Russian invasion of Eastern Europe because they didn't think they could re-enforce them in time to stop it
Sweden has an impressive air force and a strong navy that could easily seize control of the Baltic Sea and lend aid to the Baltic States in short order
Finland joining is icing on the cake as Russia has most of its nukes in the Kola Peninsula and an attack from Finland could deprive them of much of their stockpile extremely quickly. Russia has to be considering relocating their nukes
Strategically, adding these two nations to NATO is a major win for the West. As it really pins Russia in and limits its naval options to almost nothing. Mostly going through the arctic circle or a single base on the pacific ocean. Neither fleet being that strong. I'd say that Russia's best naval fleets are the Baltic and North fleets.
There's been a lot of hype ove the military power of Finland...and for many good reasons. Compared to almost any country of her size, Finland's Defence forces are impressive..execpt in one area: Naval forces.
However, here's where the mighty Swedish naval forces come in the picture.
Being very close allies, Finland and Sweden complement each other's defence forces, especially in areas where each has an operational deficit. Finland's remarkably strong artillery and now also missile defence capability is also Sweden's protection and Sweden's strong naval forces also work in Finland's favour.
Sweden's technologically very high-quality weapons development work is also great news for Finland and the whole of the Nordic region.
Thanks Shirvan and CR. I always appreciate your viewpoint.