In a press conference following the Caspian Summit in Ashgabat on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Sweden and Finland “are free to join” North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) but warned that Russia will “respond in a tit-for-tat manner” if there is NATO military build-up or infrastructure in the region.
“We will have to create same threats to the territories from where threats are coming to us,” Putin asserted, adding, “Everything was fine between us, but now there might be some tensions, there certainly will. […] It’s inevitable if there is a threat to us.”
This comes in against the backdrop of Turkey paving the way for the Nordic countries to join the military alliance earlier this week after signing a trilateral memorandum that addressed Ankara’s “legitimate security concerns.”
So very glad that Russia & Putin have given their approval for Finland and Sweden to join @NATO. Didn’t realize their comments were needed as part of the Member Action Plan requirements…but what do I know? https://t.co/msEuup4jNi
— Mark Hertling (@MarkHertling) June 30, 2022
Soon after the announcement, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov condemned NATO’s “irresponsible course… that is ruining the European architecture, or what’s left of it,” expressing concern “as to whether the upcoming period will be calm for our north European neighbours.”
Similarly, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev pointed out that Sweden and Finland’s impending NATO membership does not pose any new threats to Russia, noting that Moscow has no “territorial disputes” with the Nordic countries and in fact, used to have “quite respectful and mutually friendly relations.” However, he cautioned that Russia “will be ready for counter-moves.”
In a similar vein, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, remarked that Stockholm and Helsinki should be ready to face the consequences of abandoning their historically non-aligned stance and the impact it would have on their ties with Moscow and “on the general security architecture in Europe, which is already in deep crisis.”
He also noted that NATO calling itself a defensive alliance is just a “smokescreen,” as it has been trying to move to Russia’s borders consistently since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Slutsky further warned Turkey to not be “too flattered about the assurances” it received in exchange for not vetoing the two countries’ NATO membership bids.
A member of Russia’s Federation Council, Konstantin Kosachev, admitted that the Scandinavian countries’ accession to NATO would “certainly mean a worsening of relations between these two countries and Russia,” as Russia shares the longest land border (1,340 kilometres) with Finland and has shared interests with Sweden in the Baltic and the Barents Sea regions. “This can only be regretted,” he remarked.
In response, Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto told DW that Helsinki wants its border with Moscow to remain peaceful. “We have normal border cooperation with Russia. We have people coming and going. We are issuing visas in our embassy in Moscow and our consulate in St Petersburg, and of course, we would like to have that relation with Russia as normal as it can be in these conditions,” he acknowledged.
Haavisto also pointed out that Finland was avoiding all the provocations against Russia in the current situation, and only ensuring its own defence and security by buying 64 American F-35 combat aircraft.
As authoritarians like Vladimir Putin threaten democracies and global safety, we must not back down. To Sweden, Finland, and our Eastern European allies standing strong in the face of Russian aggression: you are not alone.https://t.co/R7JKaYEnI6
— Dick Durbin (@DickDurbin) June 30, 2022
Putin also accused NATO of trying to make “an anti-Russia of Ukraine.” “They have begun to fight against Russian culture, the Russian language. They have begun to persecute people who felt themselves part of the Russian world. There is nothing like this in Finland and Sweden. It is an absolutely different situation,” he noted.
The Russian President further said that the military alliance is using Kyiv as a “means” to defend its interests. “The NATO countries’ leaders wish to... assert their supremacy, their imperial ambitions,” Putin remarked. This comes in a day after NATO declared Russia to be “the most significant and direct threat” in its new Strategic Concept released on Thursday.
This is not the first time that Russia has threatened Sweden and Finland with severe “political and military consequences” if it joined the military alliance. It first warned them right after the Ukraine war began in February. It also warned of deploying nuclear weapons to the Baltics and even moved its military equipment, including coastal defence systems, to its border with Finland. Furthermore, it violated Swedish airspace and later on cut electricity supply to Finland.
Nevertheless, both Nordic countries decided to ramp up their cooperation with NATO despite the looming Russian threats and applied for NATO membership on May 18.
Meanwhile, Putin defended Russian forces accused of bombing a shopping mall in Ukraine’s central city of Kremenchuk, killing 18 and leaving more than 60 injured. “Our army does not attack any civilian infrastructure sites. We have every capability of knowing what is situated where. I am convinced that this time, everything was done in this exact manner,” he stressed.