Published on : 14/05/2022 – 20:32
Tempting” to avoid tension “, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö informed Saturday, May 14 his counterpart Vladimir Putin of the imminent candidacy of his country to NATO, a historic seesaw described as ” error by the Russian head of state.
With our correspondent in Moscow, Jean-Didier Revoin
Finland’s renunciation of its policy of neutrality is wrong, because there is no threat to its security. This is what Vladimir Putin replied to the Finnish President, deploring in addition that such a change would be likely to alter relations between the two countries.
A mutually beneficial partnership characterized, according to the Russian president, by a spirit of good neighborliness built up over the years. But Finland’s membership of NATO would double the direct borders between Russia and the Alliance, a situation to which Moscow will have to respond.
A decision that will not be without consequences
Already in mid-April, considering the accession of Sweden and Finland to the Atlantic Alliance, Moscow had made it known that this would involve a consolidation of land, air and naval forces along the 1,300 kilometers of the Russian border. -finnish.
A redefinition of European security as it existed until now which will not be without consequence. Dmitry Medvedev, now vice-president of the Russian Security Council, had stressed that this would certainly involve the nuclearization of the Baltic Sea.
►To read: Turkey: Erdogan opposed to NATO membership of Sweden and Finland