One nightmare scenario for the West involves Russia invading the Swedish island of Gotland, blocking off NATO supply routes to its vulnerable Baltic allies. Bunkers are an integral part of this hunker-down strategy. This perceived threat has prompted Sweden to order a reboot of its once-proud policy of "total defense" - which calls on the military and civilians to act together to ward off attackers. Local officials Thomas Schilén and Dan Backman inside the nuclear bunker in the Torsgatan area of Stockholm. "Ukraine was a wake-up call for the Swedes, and it really renewed the national discussion surrounding defense," says Erik Brattberg, a fellow at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank. That thinking changed in 2014 when Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea, allegedly sent troops into eastern Ukraine, and began violating airspace over the Nordic and Baltic regions. Many were all but forgotten, doubling as parking lots and bicycle storage spaces during a period when global conflict seemed a distant prospect. In the early 2000s, Sweden slashed defense spending and halted bunker construction. It honeycombed itself with civil defense shelters during the Cold War and today around 65,000 remain on standby, dotted around its sparsely populated territory.
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