As far back as 2019, across Sweden, citizens were being encouraged by their Government to be ‘prepared for a heightened alert or the threat of war’. The Swedish government, Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, issued a civil emergency advice booklet to 4.8 million households in 2018 encouraging them to prepare for a crisis.
Titled ‘If Crisis or War Comes’, Om krisen eller kriget kommer, the booklet includes a list of essential items.
Swedish Civil Contingencies Agencies Brochure. ‘If Crisis or War Comes’
For the first time in more than fifty years it is part of a national strategy by the Swedish Government to re-establish its military and previous Cold War preparedness, Total Defence.
- Re-introducing conscription services
- Boosting in military spending
- Re-establishing a garrison on Gotland Island in the Baltic Sea
Spurred into action by reports of alleged Russian acts of aggression and unprecedented wildfires in 2018 that forced many Swedes to evacuate their homes, the movement has grown from the fringes of Swedish society, and is now encouraged by authorities.
To survive off grid, teachers are providing tuition to children to ‘Prepare’ to stockpile food, water and other essential supplies and skills and actively preparing for the worst-case scenario.
Reports of the risk of Russian espionage intensified when Swedish authorities arrested an IT worker, suspected of being “recruited as an agent by a Russian intelligence officer posing as a diplomat in Sweden.”
Sweden’s Defence Research Agency made the shocking announcement that Russia is training for large scale war.
Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency / Dateline
The owner of Sweden’s first online prepper store says “the growing concern over regional politics is creating a more mainstream movement”.
As relations between Sweden and Russia grow increasingly strained, the global ‘prepper’ movement is finding an unlikely home in the neutral Scandinavian nation. The big increase in Sweden comes after the government issued a Cold War-era civil emergency advice booklet to 4.8 million households in 2018 exhorting them to prepare for the worst. This documentary first aired on Dateline in 2019.