Sweden Applies to Expropriate a Russian-Owned Plot on Muskö Naval Base's Only Uncontrolled Approach
Stockholm, 25 August 2026
Key points
- Sweden's Fortifications Agency, acting for the Armed Forces, has applied to expropriate a property beside Muskö naval base owned by a Russian citizen
- A 600-square-metre house is under construction on the plot, which cost more than SEK 18.5 million; the Armed Forces call it the only approach to the base not under military control
- Chief of the Defence Staff Lieutenant General Carl-Johan Edström: uncrewed systems can be used "for surveillance and intelligence gathering, as well as for direct attacks"
- The stated rationale is the drone threat to the base's approaches; the government now decides whether to grant the expropriation under ordinary Swedish law
Sweden's Fortifications Agency has applied to expropriate a Russian-owned plot beside Muskö naval base — a house under construction on land the Armed Forces call the only approach to the base not under their control, cited against "the rapid development of Russian drone warfare".
The application runs through ordinary expropriation law, not an emergency power: the Fortifications Agency has asked the government for permission to take the site, which cost its owner more than SEK 18.5 million and already carries a 600-square-metre house under construction. The Armed Forces' release names the reasoning as capability rather than nationality, with Edström's formulation covering both surveillance and "direct attacks" as uses for uncrewed systems positioned at the base's one uncontrolled approach. Swedish reporting has gone further, characterising the owner himself as a security threat — a framing the Armed Forces' own statement does not make; its stated rationale is the land's position, not an allegation against the individual.
Stockholm has chosen the slowest instrument available, and the choice is the point. Expropriation runs through compensation and appeal and leaves the owner's nationality out of the file; a security-law route would have been faster and would have had to say what the state believes about the buyer. Signal No. 132 carried the application; the government's decision on whether to grant it, and whether the Fortifications Agency follows with a survey of comparable holdings around Berga and Karlskrona, will show whether Muskö is a single correction or the start of an inventory.
