Helsinki’s NATO membership is, according to the Kremlin spokesman, an “additional threat” to Russia, which shares more than 1,300 kilometers of border with the country. Moscow has for years denounced NATO’s eastward expansion.
Russian authorities, who for years have accused NATO of threatening the Russian Federation’s security by expanding eastward, reacted to Finland’s announcement of NATO membership on April 4 .
For Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin, “it is undoubtedly an event that does not contribute to the strengthening of stability, security and predictability on the European continent”. “It exposes us to an additional threat and forces us to take the necessary measures to rebalance the entire security system,” he said.
“This is a further aggravation of the situation. The enlargement of NATO is an attack on our security and on Russian national interests,” the spokesman for the Russian presidency once again told the press. “We will closely follow what is happening in Finland, how it threatens us. Measures will be taken accordingly. Our army will report in due time,” Dmitry Peskov said.
Russian diplomacy has indicated that Moscow’s “countermeasures” will depend in particular on whether or not the weapons of the military organization led by Washington are deployed, and of their type, on Finnish territory. “Concrete measures concerning the defense of Russia’s northwestern borders will depend on the concrete conditions for [Finland’s] integration into the Atlantic Alliance, in particular the deployment on its territory of military infrastructure and weapons systems of NATO capable of striking,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
After three decades of military non-alignment, Finland, which shares more than 1,300 kilometers of border with Russia, joined NATO on April 4. A strategic turning point caused, according to the West, by the offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on February 24. , 2022. Finland’s membership allows NATO to double the length of the border shared by its members with Russia, which the Kremlin takes a dim view of.
Finland Renounces “Its Identity”, According to Russian Diplomacy
Russian diplomacy also considered that by joining NATO, Finland had given up “its identity” and “all independence”. “Finland has become one of those small member states of the Alliance, those who decide nothing, losing their voice apart in international affairs,” she denounced. With the doubling of “the direct line of contact between NATO and Russia’s borders, the situation in Northern Europe, once one of the most stable regions in the world, has changed dramatically”, according to the same source. “Finland has never become anti-Russian and we have had no argument” with her, lamented on the same subject Dmitri Peskov. The Helsinki decision “can only affect the nature” of Russian-Finnish relations, because the Atlantic Alliance “is an unfriendly organization, hostile in more ways than one towards Russia”, according to the door -word of the Kremlin.
The Atlantic Alliance, led by the United States, is considered by Moscow to be one of the main threats to its security. Kyiv’s stated desire to join NATO was also one of the reasons put forward by Russia to justify its military offensive in Ukraine.
This article is originally published on nouvelles-dujour.com
