“Gas masks, protective suits in the event of radioactive fallout, military rations, canned goods, radio, sleeping bags, water cans…”.
Nils, 30, makes a list of everything in his apartment in Stockholm (Sweden).
He has enough to survive alone, without electricity, for a week.
“It’s not only about things we have but also things we have to learn,” adds the thirty-year-old who ferments, dries or salts his food to better preserve it.
If Nils gathers all this survival equipment and food, it is because the Swedish authorities recommend that its citizens be able to survive completely independently at home for 7 days in the event of war with Russia.
“There has always been a fear of the Russians, the fear that they will invade us.
But I think this fear has intensified recently,” he explains, referring to the invasion of Ukraine and Sweden's application to join NATO.
This month, the government even called on Swedes to “mentally prepare for war” because it is convinced that “the invasion of Ukraine is only a stage”.
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Nils is not particularly worried.
Although it is said that it is always better to be prepared, whether in the event of a Russian invasion, a cyberattack or a natural disaster.
And then, “even if it means surviving, it might as well be together,” he said to himself.
So he prepared everything for one more person.
He also stocks games, books and an acoustic guitar to “know how to keep busy and have fun if you're stuck at home for a whole week,” he jokes.
Nils reminds us that there have always been extreme survivalists who prepare for the apocalypse.
He is not one of those.
“But the kind of mini-preparation like the one I have at home has increased, because that's what the Swedish Civil Protection Agency recommends,” explains the man we call a “prepper” in Sweden.
Nils has always been passionate and intrigued by survivalism.
In 2018, when the Swedish state sent a brochure explaining to the population what to do in the event of war, the young Swede and a friend transformed their basement into a real bunker in which they lived for a week , “just to get in condition”.