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NATO

Russia threatens ‘countermeasures’ over Sweden’s Nato membership

Russia vowed 'countermeasures' over Sweden's entry into Nato, in a message from its Stockholm embassy.

Russia threatens 'countermeasures' over Sweden's Nato membership
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. Photo: Magnus Lejhall/TT

Sweden on Monday cleared the final hurdle to become the 32nd member of the alliance, when last holdout Hungary’s parliament ratified the Nordic country’s membership.

“Russia will take countermeasures of a political and military-technical nature in order to minimise threats to its national security,” the embassy said in a post on Telegram.

It added that their “concrete content” would depend on the extent of Sweden’s integration into Nato, “including the possible deployment in this country of Nato troops, military assets and weapons”.

Sweden dropped two centuries of military non-alignment in applying for Nato membership alongside Finland in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“It is a sovereign matter for Sweden to choose its security policy. At the same time, the country’s entry into a military alliance hostile to Russia will have negative consequences for stability in Northern Europe and around the Baltic Sea, which remains our common area,” the Russian embassy said in its post.

It stressed that the Baltic would never be a “Nato lake” as some observers have dubbed it. Sweden’s accession means that all the countries bordering the Baltic Sea, except Russia, are now Nato members.

It’s not the first time Moscow has threatened “political and military-technical” measures in response to Nato enlargement, which it also did when Finland last year joined the alliance.

Experts have previously interpreted it as for example moving military units and infrastructure, and increasing military exercises.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Wednesday played down Russia’s comments.

“It is well known that Russia doesn’t like that Sweden or Finland become Nato members, but we choose our own paths,” he told Swedish news agency TT.

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SWEDISH CITIZENSHIP

Swedish government wants tougher citizenship rules to apply to more applicants

The Swedish government has ordered an ongoing inquiry to look into making stricter rules for citizenship apply to more people than before.

Swedish government wants tougher citizenship rules to apply to more applicants

As The Local reported at the time, parliament this month voted through tougher rules for so-called “citizenship through notification” – medborgarskap genom anmälan – an easier route to Swedish citizenship available to some categories of applicants.

The government now wants to scrap the option completely.

“It is important to protect the importance of Swedish citizenship. The government has already taken measures to strengthen Swedish citizenship. The requirements for Swedish citizenship need to be tightened further to increase its value,” said Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard, of the conservative Moderate Party, in a statement as she presented the new instructions to the inquiry on Thursday.

Under current rules, citizenship through notification is available to children who have lived in Sweden for at least three years (two if stateless), young adults between 18 and 21 who have lived in Sweden since they turned 13 (15 if stateless) and Nordic citizens.

EXPLAINED: 

The route would still be available to Nordic citizens. It might not be possible to completely scrap the right for stateless adults due to international conventions, but the government still wants the inquiry to look into tightening the rules for that group in other ways.

The government also wants the inquiry to come up with proposals for tightening the rules for acquiring citizenship for adults who were born stateless in Sweden, and investigate whether exemptions from citizenship requirements should be removed or reduced.

Such exemptions currently mean that someone can become a citizen even if they don’t meet the requirements in terms of how long they’ve lived in Sweden, for example if they were previously Swedish, if their partner is Swedish, or if there are other special reasons.

The new instructions have been handed to Sweden’s major inquiry into tightening overall citizenship rules, which is already looking into a range of new legislative changes, for example extending the time applicants have to live in Sweden before they are eligible for citizenship and proposing requirements for language and knowledge of Swedish culture.

This inquiry was originally supposed to conclude by the end of September 2024, but has now been extended to January 15th, 2025.

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