Ambassador: That Finland, Sweden join NATO would create a headache for Russia | News
Sakkov appeared on ETV’s political talk show “Esimene stuudio” on Tuesday night: “In fact, for example, the strategic situation regarding Kaliningrad regarding Russia’s strategic situation would be very different, if Finland and Sweden join NATO. How to protect it -“
“so far it has had a so-called military value, but I predict that in the future, from Russia’s point of view, it will be more of a military problem, about how to protect it,” Sakkov added.
Sakkov added that Finland and Sweden joining NATO would also reduce concerns about the so-called Suwalki gap, a short 104 km long border between NATO member Poland and Lithuania, booked by Kaliningrad in the west and the Russian border to the “mainland” to the east.
He said: “NATO is getting much stronger in northern Europe; the problem with the Suwalki Corridor or the Suwalki Gap is significantly reduced, security of supply is improving and we will actually have an ally with a very, very strong army, which makes us much stronger militarily.”
Finland has so far postponed an official position on joining NATO, Sakkov said, to create such a short time lag between making the announcement and actually joining the alliance – for fear of a Russian retaliation.
Sakkov also noted that the Finnish media have said that by joining NATO, the country would have a major responsibility for the defense of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, but said that this is not the case – some protection zones are not assigned to specific nations in the alliance, he said. .
“For example, the idea of the improved Forward Presence (eFP) battle groups does not mean that we send our forces to Latvia, Latvia sends itss to Lithuania, Lithuania to Poland, etc. It would be absurd. Instead, the idea is to risk and share the burden with these states. “is in relative security in the West, especially the larger NATO countries and especially the nuclear powers,” Sakkov continued.
Finland still has something to offer for Baltic security, he continued.
“It also has something to do with the enemy in a conflict situation. Finland, for example, has aircraft-launched cruise missiles with a range of 450 km.”
While Finland has reportedly asked some of its allies for security guarantees in the meantime, the candidate countries had not promised anything official, Sakkov added, noting that once the country joined, larger organized military exercises would be feasible and NATO allies could also be present. on the ground in Finland.
Both Finland and Sweden have been looking seriously at NATO membership since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began two and a half months ago.
Finland may choose to apply for NATO membership on 12 May, according to an unconfirmed reportwhile Sweden is reportedly to have the end result of a security policy review, including the pros and cons of membership, a day later.
Sweden has also been serious strengthen its defenses on the strategically important Baltic Sea island of Gotland (Ojamaa, in Estonian).
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