StockholmMOSCOW, Jan 14 Sweden has stationed armored fighting vehicles and troops to patrol the streets on the island Gotland due to «Russia's activities in the region,» Agence France-Presse reports, citing the Swedish military. Earlier, the Swedish radio station Radio Sweden reported that Sweden is stepping up patrols on the island of Gotland amid the situation in relations between Russia and NATO. «The armed forces are taking the necessary measures to protect the integrity of Sweden and to demonstrate our ability to protect Sweden and Swedish interests,» Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist told the agency. A meeting of the Russia-NATO Council was held in Brussels on Wednesday. The meeting was a follow-up to negotiations on security guarantees between Russia and the United States, which took place on January 9-10 in Geneva. On Thursday, after a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council, consultations were held at the Vienna site of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Finland and Sweden in NATO On Thursday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, in an interview with the RTVI television channel, said, in particular, that Russia is now the main opponent of NATO, only because it is trying to firmly defend its interests. The Russian diplomat also said that the United States and its allies are saying «no» to Russia on key points in Russian security proposals. At the end of 2021, Russia published drafts of a treaty with the United States and an agreement with NATO on security guarantees. Moscow, in particular, demands from its Western partners legal guarantees of refusing further expansion of NATO to the East, from joining the bloc of Ukraine and from creating military bases in post-Soviet countries. .jpg» />The Swedes explained why it is dangerous to «drive Russia into a corner» by joining NATO
