Bildt: Russian planes not aiming at Sweden

Sweden’s foreign minister Carl Bildt says the Russian fighter jets loaded with heavy bombs that flew a training exercise near Swedish air space during Easter were not simulating an attack on Sweden.

The newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported three weeks ago that Russia’s practice targets were some of Sweden’s most important military bases.

But speaking to another newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, Bildt for the first time Friday refuted those claims and called the debate about whether or not Sweden was prepared to defend itself “completely hysterical”.

Bildt, citing security concerns, says he cannot disclose what the six Russian fighter jets were doing near Gotska Sandön, an uninhabited island in the Baltic.

However he says, “We have a very good picture of what happened. We are following it very closely.”