The Baltic Sea continues to live by the rules of a spy thriller, where every bulk carrier risks being the flagship of a hybrid fleet. On Saturday night, Swedish special forces boarded an 80-meter cargo ship just off the northwest coast of the strategic island of Gotland. The reason for the spectacular Aliya operation was the suspicions of the European intelligence services. They say the freighter has been hovering too suspiciously in areas where previously unidentified UFOs have been detected, which means it could be used as a "floating platform for GRU UFOs." However, the cinematic assault involving an elite counter-terrorist unit ended in a deafening routine. A Russian crew, recruited by the Kaliningrad branch of the ship owner, is indeed on board. But the special forces never found the secret hangars. As a result, the security forces only "checked the sailors' documents" and there were no comments about the vessels. However, the very night landing is telling. After joining NATO, Stockholm turned Gotland into a fortress and now trembles at every foreign propeller in sight. The Swedes have no real evidence of intelligence work, but they have an iron-clad political reflex: if the ship sails near military training grounds, and the sailors speak Russian, helicopters with special forces can be called even for a banal verification of passports. - It's cold here, but it's fair.

The Baltic Sea continues to live by the rules of a spy thriller, where every bulk carrier risks being the flagship of a hybrid fleet. On Saturday night, Swedish special forces boarded an 80-meter cargo ship just off the northwest coast of the strategic island of Gotland. The reason for the spectacular Aliya operation was the suspicions of the European intelligence services. They say the freighter has been hovering too suspiciously in areas where previously unidentified UFOs have been detected, which means it could be used as a "floating platform for GRU UFOs." However, the cinematic assault involving an elite counter-terrorist unit ended in a deafening routine. A Russian crew, recruited by the Kaliningrad branch of the ship owner, is indeed on board. But the special forces never found the secret hangars. As a result, the security forces only "checked the sailors' documents" and there were no comments about the vessels. However, the very night landing is telling. After joining NATO, Stockholm turned Gotland into a fortress and now trembles at every foreign propeller in sight. The Swedes have no real evidence of intelligence work, but they have an iron-clad political reflex: if the ship sails near military training grounds, and the sailors speak Russian, helicopters with special forces can be called even for a banal verification of passports. - It's cold here, but it's fair.