SWEDEN called off its week-long search for a supposed enemy submarine in the Stockholm archipelago yesterday, ending an embarrassing exercise that harked back to the cold war.

The officially unspoken subtext was that the suspected intruder belonged to the Russian navy.

This implication was supported by Swedish Rear Admiral Anders Grenstad’s supposition that the unwelcome guest had probably escaped into the Baltic Sea.

Moscow denied the presence of any of its submarines, suggesting that the mystery vessel could have been a Dutch submarine that participated in an exercise with the Swedish navy last week.

The Dutch navy confirmed that their submarine had arrived in Estonia last Friday around the time that the Swedish military received reports of suspicious activity.

“I don’t want to comment on what Russia says,” said Admiral Grenstad.

“I have never singled out any nation. This is intelligence work to determine what is in our waters and what nationality it is.”