Responding this morning to a question about whether Finland’s possible entry into NATO would pose a threat to Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said “definitely.” He pointed out that “the expansion of the Alliance does not make the Eurasian continent more stable and secure.”
Peskov also warned that Moscow’s response to Finland’s entry into NATO “will depend on the degree of approximation of the Alliance’s military infrastructure to Russia’s borders.” “The situation will be analyzed and the necessary measures will be applied to guarantee the security of the country,” he added.
The Russian presidential spokesman also deplored that “the United States has not made any attempt to resume negotiations with Russia in the last two months” and denounced that “in the talks with Ukraine there is nothing to boast about either.”
“Everyone is trying to avoid a direct clash between Russia and NATO, but Russia will give a forceful response to anyone who tries to intervene” in the Ukrainian conflict.
Last month, the former president, former head of government and current vice president of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, warned that if Finland and Sweden join NATO, the non-nuclear status of the Baltic region will have to be forgotten. He assured through his Telegram channel that if the two Scandinavian countries join the Atlantic bloc «NATO’s land borders with the Russian Federation will more than double in length. Naturally, the defense of these borders will have to be strengthened.”
“It will be necessary to seriously reinforce the ground forces, the air defense systems and increase the presence of our Navy in the Gulf of Finland,” Medvedev warned, stressing that, in such a case, “the current non-nuclear status of the region cannot be maintained. of the Baltic, since the balance of forces would have to be restored’. He denied that the cause of Finland and Sweden contemplating possible accession to the Alliance has to do with what is happening in Ukraine. In his opinion, “we do not have territorial disputes with these countries, as we do with Ukraine.”
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