Nordic countries, eyeing Russia, dust off their crisis advice

By Christina Anderson

NEW YORK: The last time Sweden updated the crisis preparedness advice it distributes nationwide, Russia had not yet launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Sweden had not joined NATO in response. Six years later, Ukraine is locked in a grinding war with Russia. World leaders are preparing for the United States to become more protectionist with Donald Trump as president again. And climate threats continue to grow.

“We live in uncertain times,” Sweden told its citizens in a new edition of its emergency readiness pamphlet, which the government began distributing to households Monday. Its Nordic neighbors recently made similar moves. Finland published a consolidated online version of its crisis preparedness Monday, and Denmark and Norway sent out their guidance earlier this year. They are trying to better prepare people for a world rife with security threats, disinformation, cyberattacks and climate disasters.

While the new guides do not directly mention Russia, which borders Finland and Norway, Swedish and Finnish officials told The New York Times on Tuesday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had informed their decision. “The biggest difference is the increased focus of war preparedness — and the more severe tone of the warnings,” said Svante Werger, a preparedness adviser at the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency.

“The global security environment has become more unpredictable,” said Eriikka Koistinen, communications director for Finland’s Interior Ministry. It’s not just the war in Ukraine, she said, but also the apparent sabotage this week of fiber-optic cables in the Baltic Sea, the conflict in the Middle East and Russia’s growing relationship with North Korea.

The Nordics have long been wary of their belligerent neighbor to the east.

Finland, which joined NATO in 2023, shares an 830-mile border with Russia. Norway, which has helped Europe heat its homes after Russia cut gas exports, is worried about Russian spies near their shared border. And Sweden, which joined NATO in March, warned that “military threat levels are increasing” in its recent pamphlet release.

“The Swedish government is taking the security situation really seriously,” Werger said. “The general perspective is that you cannot exclude the possibility of an armed attack.”

On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin officially lowered Russia’s threshold for using nuclear weapons. In addition, a day after the Biden administration had authorized it, Ukraine fired U.S.-made ballistic missiles into Russia for the first time, officials said.

“The war in Ukraine affects Ukraine, but it also affects our safety and security,” Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s foreign minister, said Tuesday.

Norway updated its advice because “the world has changed significantly since 2018,” Tore Kamfjord, a head of the country’s civil preparedness campaign, said in an email.

One change he noted: Norwegians should be ready to sustain themselves for a week, up from three days. “We face a lasting deterioration in the security situation in our region,” Kamfjord said, also pointing to the worsening effects of climate change and broader digital security threats.

For Sweden, the pamphlet, “In Case of Crisis or War,” is the latest step in a broad push to ready the country for war. At 32 pages, it is almost twice as long as the 2018 edition, which was its first significant revision since the Cold War and followed Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

There are more details on things like how to seek shelter and how to evacuate, Werger said. There’s also a new section for people who need special assistance or have pets, he added.

Next month, the Swedish parliament is set to vote on a defense bill that would boost military and civil defense spending over the next five years. “If Sweden is attacked, we will never surrender,” the pamphlet says. “Any suggestion to the contrary is false.”

That statement is now on the first page after the table of contents. In 2018, a version was on page 12, buried below tips on identifying fake information and checklists for home preparation.