Sweden’s new military leader says Putin’s strategic unpredictability surpasses Cold War dangers 

General Michael Claesson, set to become the supreme commander of the Swedish Armed Forces on Tuesday, shared his views with local media, according to Politico.

“There are many similarities, but at the same time it is in various ways more unpredictable than the Cold War,” he said. “There were other mechanisms and dialogue at that time.”

He called Russia "strategically erratic" and said the Kremlin posed “a variety of different types of threats,” including “conventional military violence" and hybrid warfare, which he described as “exploiting vulnerabilities in society.”

The report notes that Sweden applied to join NATO together with Finland shortly after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 and became the alliance’s 32nd member in March.

In recent years, Russia has frequently threatened to attack NATO and its allies. This month, Moscow’s chief diplomat announced that the country is "completely prepared" for conflict with the Arctic members of the alliance, among them Sweden.

In May, Sweden's outgoing defense chief, Micael Bydén, cautioned that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has both eyes” on the Swedish island of Gotland.

“If Russia takes control and seals off the Baltic Sea, it would have an enormous impact on our lives — in Sweden and all other countries bordering the Baltic Sea. We can’t allow that,” Bydén said.