Finland’s announcement that it intends to apply to join NATO set off alarms in Russia on Thursday morning.
Russia has viewed NATO as a national security threat and pointed to its expansion as a defense for its invasion of Ukraine. While the war was, in part, designed to discourage a continued growth of the defensive alliance, Russia’s aggression has spooked neighbors and resulted in NATO suggesting it is willing to fast-track some countries’ applications. Such expansion is unacceptable to Moscow.
Russia will need to take “retaliatory steps, both of a military-technical and other nature, in order to stop threats to its national security arising,” according to Reuters. “Helsinki must be aware of the responsibility and consequences of such a move.”
Finland has been widely expected to submit its application to join the military alliance and another Russian neighbor, Sweden, is likely to follow suit later this month. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the countries would be “warmly welcomed” and that he expects the process of them joining to “go quickly.”
FINLAND’S LEADERS ANNOUNCE INTENTION TO JOIN NATO
Both countries have received security guarantees from the United Kingdom that they will be defended from a Russian attack, should such a situation arise before they are full-fledged members of NATO.
Russia is looking at Finland’s move as escalatory and something that “definitely” poses a threat to its national security.
“Finland joined the unfriendly steps taken by the European Union towards our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “This cannot fail to arouse our regret, and is a reason for corresponding symmetrical responses on our side.”
“NATO expansion does not make our continent more stable and secure,” he continued.
Peskov said Russia is concerned not only that the alliance is growing but that it will move “military infrastructure” closer to Russian borders.
NATO countries, including the United States, have been providing Ukrainian soldiers with arms as they continue to resist Russian forces. Along with arms shipments, U.S. forces have also trained Ukrainian soldiers on how to use U.S. weapon systems.
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Involvement by NATO countries, on top of expansion, pushed former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to warn on Thursday that those countries’ involvement risks a massive escalation by Russia.
“The pumping of Ukraine by NATO countries with weapons, the training of its troops to use Western equipment, the dispatch of mercenaries and the conduct of exercises by the countries of the Alliance near our borders increase the likelihood of a direct and open conflict between NATO and Russia instead of their ‘war by proxy,’” Medvedev wrote on Telegram. “Such a conflict always has the risk of turning into a full-fledged nuclear war.”
