Russia acts as Finland and Sweden join NATO is no big deal weeks after repeatedly making dramatic threats about it
- Russian officials change the mood when Sweden and Finland announce that they want to join NATO.
- Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday Finland and Sweden join NATO would probably make “not much difference”, It reported Reuters.
- Just last week, Russia said it would need to take “retaliatory steps” if it were to join NATO.
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Russian officials made an abrupt upheaval this week when Sweden and Finland announced they wanted to join NATO, where Russia’s top diplomat downplayed historical developments after Moscow repeatedly made dramatic threats in recent months in response to the possibility of the Nordic countries joins the alliance.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday Finland and Sweden join NATO would probably make “not much difference”, It reported Reuters.
“Finland and Sweden, as well as other neutral countries, have participated in NATO military exercises for many years,” Lavrov continued.
“NATO takes their territory into account when planning military advances to the east. So in that sense, there is probably not much difference. Let’s see how their territory is used in practice in the North Atlantic Alliance,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Lavrov’s comments echoed statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin the day before.
“Russia has no problems with these states – none,” Putin told the leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Moscow-led military alliance, on Monday. “And so in this sense, there is no immediate threat to Russia from a NATO expansion to include these countries,” he added. according to Reuters.
Putin noted, however, that “the expansion of military infrastructure into this territory would certainly provoke our response.”
This new, less aggressive tone comes on the heels of weeks of threats from the Kremlin against Helsinki and Stockholm on the subject of NATO membership, including military retaliation and nuclear threats.
On Thursday, e.g. According to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry that if Finland joins NATO, “Russia will be forced to retaliate, both of a military and other nature, in order to stop the threats to its national security that arise in this regard.”
Both Scandinavian countries broke from decades of neutrality by joining NATO. The historic shift in politics was prompted by Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Finland shares a 1,300 km long border with Russia, and the Finns and Russians fought hard during World War II in a conflict known as the Winter War, in which Finland lost much of its territory. In 1948, Finland signed a treaty with Russia which ensured that the Soviets would not invade again in exchange for Helsinki remaining militarily non-aligned. Sweden, like its neighbor Finland, was neutral throughout the Cold War.
Finland and Sweden became NATO partner countries in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but they did not strive for full NATO membership. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however, has led both countries to quickly join the alliance. NATO operates in accordance with the principle of collective defense, enshrined in Article 5 of its founding treaty. It regards an attack on one as an attack on all. Joining NATO would provide Finland and Sweden with protection for dozens of countries, including nuclear powers such as the United States.
Russia has been doing this for several years complained about NATO’s expansion during the post-Cold War period, when a number of former Soviet republics joined the alliance. When Russia began gathering tens of thousands of troops at Ukraine’s border in late 2021, Putin raged against NATO, demanding that Ukraine be banned from ever joining the alliance. NATO refused, declaring that its open door policy was non-negotiable, while offering to negotiate with Russia on other security issues, such as missile deployments and military exercises.
In his Victory Day speech on May 9, Putin once again blamed NATO for the war in Ukraine and wrongly claimed that Russia had no choice but to invade. But the reality is that Russia invaded Ukraine without provocation, contrary to Putin’s claims.
An enlargement of NATO requires unanimity from all current members. Only one NATO country – Turkey – has expressed opposition to adding Finland and Sweden. But NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has expressed confidence that Turkey’s concerns will be addressed and will not ultimately prevent Finland and Sweden from joining the alliance.
Finland and Sweden, which join NATO, are ready to stand as one of the more significant ways in which Russia’s war in Ukraine has struck back against Moscow. Instead of weakening an alliance he has criticized for years, Putin has revived NATO and placed it on the brink of adding new members – including one sitting on Russia’s northern border.