Russia Warns Sweden, Finland on Joining NATO: Nobody Wants ‘Nukes a Stone’s Throw From Their House’
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As Finland and Sweden consider applying to join NATO in the coming months, Moscow is warning that abandoning their longstanding neutrality will attract a Russian response, including the deployment of nuclear weapons in their neighborhood.
The Finnish and Swedish prime ministers, Sanna Marin and Magdalena Andersson, indicated at a joint press conference in Stockholm on Wednesday that their countries, members of the European Union but not NATO, will consider applying to join the transatlantic alliance soon. Marin said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has changed “everything.
A Russian response came from Dmitry Medvedev, the former president and prime minister who is deputy head of President Vladimir Putin’s Security Council and only heads the pro-Kremlin United Russia Party.
“If Sweden and Finland join NATO, the length of the alliance’s land border with Russia will more than double,” the TASS state news agency quoted him as saying in a Telegram post. “Naturally, it will be necessary to strengthen these borders.”
In such a scenario, Medvedev said, the security balance in the area will have to be restored, and “there can no longer be talk about the Baltic’s non-nuclear status.”
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