“Russian mischief” about Finland and Sweden awaits NATO membership – former vice-general
14 May 2022, 18:23
Former NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller tells LBC that there will be “opportunities for Russian mischief” during the transition period as Finland, and possibly Sweden, awaits NATO membership.
It comes when Putin told the President of Finland in a telephone conversation on Saturday morning that abandoning neutrality and joining NATO would be a “mistake”.
On Saturday, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto told Vladimir Putin that the non-aligned Nordic country that shares a long border with Russia “will decide to apply for NATO membership in the coming days”.
Finland and Sweden’s efforts to join the alliance stopped earlier when Turkish President Erdogan said he could not support their bid due to Kurdish terrorist organizations operating in both countries.
Speaking to David Lammy, Gottemoeller said: “I was pleased to see Boris Johnson step forward and provide that transition guarantee to Finland and Sweden, as the process [of joining NATO] can take a long time.
“Each individual NATO member must make the decision through his or her parliament … and these ratification processes may take some time.
“People say six months, I bet it’s going to be more like 12 months.”
“In the meantime, I believe that Finland and Sweden will receive a lot of support from the whole alliance, but there will be some opportunities for Russian mischief during the transition period,” Gottemoeller continued.
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Ms Gottemoeller said such atrocities could include “hybrid actions, cyber attacks, that kind of thing, rather than outright military arrack because the Russian armed forces are completely preoccupied with this terrible invasion of Ukraine”.
“I do not see that they have the remaining military forces to throw at Finland and Sweden,” she said.
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