Russia will take counter-measures in response to Finland joining NATO, the Kremlin has warned, ahead of the official flag raising ceremony later today. Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesman said Moscow viewed Finland’s ascension to the western military alliance as an ‘assault on our security’, after the Russian despot ordered the invasion of sovereign Ukraine last year.
Finland today becomes the 31st member of NATO, in a historic strategic shift provoked by Moscow’s assault on Ukraine, which roughly doubles the US-led alliance’s border with Russia. Ahead of the ceremony today, Russia raged against Finland’s ascension, branding its membership an ‘assault on our security’ and said it would take countermeasures.
‘The Kremlin believes that this is the latest aggravation of the situation,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
‘The expansion of NATO is an assault on our security and Russia’s national interests,’ he added. ‘And this forces us to take countermeasures… in tactical and strategic terms.’ He did not provide further details on what these could be.
Meanwhile, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg called the latest expansion of the alliance a historic event and direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and promised to ensure that Finland’s fellow Nordic country Sweden would also join.
‘Putin had as a declared goal of the invasion of Ukraine to get less NATO,’ Stoltenberg told reporters ahead of a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers.
‘He is getting exactly the opposite… Finland today, and soon also Sweden will become a full fledged member of the alliance,’ he said.
Earlier, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Finland’s accession to the NATO military alliance – and NATO’s move to increase its own combat-readiness – increased the risk of conflict between Russia and the West. Shoigu also said that some Belarusian military jets were now capable of carrying nuclear warheads and that Iskander rocket systems had been transferred to Belarus, which could be used to carry conventional or nuclear missiles.
Putin said last month that Russia would station tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus.
Russia used Belarus as a launchpad for its invasion last year and fears have remained high in Kyiv and the West that it could be further dragged into the conflict by Moscow, with some warning of a false-flag attack to justify Minsk getting involved.
