Reaction to summit: Putin accuses NATO of “imperial ambitions”.

Status: 06/30/2022 04:30 a.m

Russian President Putin has accused NATO of “imperial ambitions”. The Kremlin chief issued a warning to Sweden and Finland, but also said he had “no problem” with their joining NATO.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Sweden and Finland once morest stationing NATO troops and alliance military infrastructure on their territory. If the northern European countries decide to take such a step, Russia will react accordingly.

His country will “create the same threats to the territory from which threats are created once morest us.” But Putin also told journalists in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabad that Russia had “no problem” with the planned NATO accession of Finland and Sweden. “We don’t have problems with Sweden and Finland like we have with Ukraine.”

There are no “territorial differences” between the two countries. However, should “military contingents and military infrastructure be deployed” in the states, Russia would be forced to respond in kind, Putin added.

Responsibility for attack on shopping center denied

On Wednesday, NATO officially extended an invitation to join Sweden and Finland, which want to relinquish their longstanding status in the wake of Russia’s war of aggression once morest Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the Ukraine war had “brought regarding the biggest reform of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War.”

Putin then accused NATO of “imperial ambitions”. The military alliance is trying to assert its “supremacy” through the Ukraine conflict. “Ukraine and the well-being of the Ukrainian people are not the goal of the collective West and NATO, but a means of defending their own interests.”

The Russian head of state also denied responsibility for the attack on a shopping center in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk that killed 18. “Our army does not attack any civilian infrastructure. We are perfectly capable of knowing what is where,” he said.

“Destructive course” of NATO

Political Moscow had already shown itself to be unsurprised in the evening, but clearly disappointed by the NATO decision made in Madrid to now also include Finland and Sweden in the alliance. Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov condemned this step and spoke of a “destructive course” for the North Atlantic alliance.

According to Ryabkov, the talk of Euro-Atlantic solidarity only serves as a cover for the alliance’s aggressive plans towards Russia. This regrets Russia. NATO’s rhetoric is clear:

A new concept is adopted, in which Russia is identified as a threat to the alliance. But it is the Alliance that threatens us. And we will do everything to ensure our own security and that of our allies under all conditions.

Ina Ruck, ARD Moscow, on Russia’s reactions to the results of the NATO summit

daily topics 10:15 p.m., 29.6.2022

Three dimensions of change

In an interview with Russian state television, the deputy spokesman for the Federation Council, Konstantin Kosachev, said that direct relations between Finland and Sweden and Russia were now also deteriorating. And that is only the first of a total of three dimensions.

The second dimension is the implications for regional cooperation. Because the NATO accession of Finland and Sweden transforms all existing structures, such as the Council of the Baltic Sea States, the Council of the Barents Arctic Region and the Arctic Council, into structures in which all countries except Russia are NATO members.

For Kosatschow, the third dimension is actually collective security itself, whether in Europe or in a broader, global context. Any expansion of NATO, Kosatschow continued, would only further divide the world.

“They have been planning this iron curtain for a long time”

But that’s apparently exactly the goal, political scientist Araik Sepanyan analyzes in a political talk show close to the Kremlin:

They are supposed to block Russia from the west, from Finland to Turkey. They have planned this iron curtain for a long time. Now they have implemented this plan. Their task is: to blockade Russia from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea and create hotspots around Russia.

Not only the political scientist fails to mention that Finland and Sweden only decided to apply for NATO membership following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Peskow: Ready for further steps

Instead, the expansion of NATO that has now been decided is used as proof that the “special military operation,” as the Kremlin continues to call its war in Ukraine, was a correct and even necessary step – to protect Russia’s interests. Accordingly, one is also prepared to take further steps, said the spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov.

Let me remind you once more that once morest the background of new threats posed by these actions of the Alliance, our Department of Defense has developed plans for a corresponding strengthening of the western borders.

As always, Peskow left it open how this strengthening should look like.

By Martha Wilczynski, ARD Studio Moscow

Russia’s view of the NATO summit: “A new iron curtain”

Martha Wilczynski, ARD Moscow, June 29, 2022 7:47 p.m