Former Russian President Dimitri Medvedev warned Thursday that if Finland and Sweden join NATO, Russia “will have more officially registered opponents.” At the same time, he reflected on the loss of the non-nuclear status of the Baltic region.
“And Sweden and Finland join NATOthe length of the Alliance’s land borders with Russia will more than double,” he considered, before insisting that, “naturally,” those borders will have to be “strengthened.”
“If Sweden and Finland join NATO, the length of the Alliance’s land borders with Russia will more than double,” he said, before insisting that “naturally” those borders will have to be “strengthened.”
Thus, it would be necessary to “restore the balance”, as it affected his communication channel. Telegram. In this way, he emphasized that Moscow had not strengthened those borders and “was not going to do so,” according to the Russian news agency Interfax. In his opinion, this scenario, Russia should react «without emotion, with a cool head».
On the other hand, the former president expressed his “disagreement” with the opinion that if Russia had not started the invasion of Ukraine, the question of Finnish and Swedish accession to NATO would not have arisen. “Attempts have been made before to drag them into the Alliance,” he said.
Dimitri Peskov in agreement with Medvedev
Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov agreed with Medvedev’s view and stressed that the Baltic region would no longer have non-nuclear status.
“This has already been said many times. Most importantly, let us remember that there is a presidential order to the Ministry of Defense to submit proposals to strengthen our western flank in the context of building NATO’s military potential close to our western borders,” he noted. However, he refused to answer whether this increase would include the deployment of military weapons in the region.
Finland announced on Wednesday that the Nordic country’s final decision on its entry into NATO will be made “in weeks.” The Swedish press, meanwhile, revealed that Sweden’s intention is to announce its entry into the Alliance in June this year, coinciding with the Alliance summit in Madrid.
This would be the ideal scenario to formalize the application for membership, which, as Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has explained on several occasions, might be quick in view of the high level of alignment with NATO standards.
Russia’s government on Wednesday called public statements regarding a possible NATO membership of Finland and Sweden “unintelligent”. The Russian authorities already denied on Monday that the union of Finland and Sweden to NATO allows to increase security in Europe in the midst of the war in Ukraine.