Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Finland and Sweden’s applications for NATO membership were not a problem for Russia alone and would only see the action as a threat if it involved sending weapons to the two countries.
In his speech at the summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (OTSC), Putin said, “Russia has no problem with these countries (Finland and Sweden). Expansion to these countries does not pose a direct threat to us.”
He stressed, however, that if the expansion were accompanied by “the deployment of military infrastructure in these regions,” it would certainly provoke a backlash on our part.
“So what will happen? We will decide based on the threats NATO poses to us,” he added.
Putin describes NATO enlargement as “artificial” because he argued it was “done in the interests of US foreign policy”.
In essence, NATO is used persistently, ingeniously and very aggressively as a country’s foreign policy tool.
According to him, “all this exacerbates the already complex situation of international security”.
“In addition to this policy of endless expansion, the Atlantic alliance goes beyond its geographical mandate, the boundaries of the Euro-Atlantic region,” he said.
Putin sees this expansion as a means “to control the international situation in terms of security, not to affect other parts of the world in the best way”.
Last Saturday, the Russian leader warned Finnish President Sauli Niinistö that it would be a “wrong” decision for the Scandinavian country to abandon a historic policy of neutrality and join NATO.
Commenting on the phone conversation between the two presidents, the Kremlin said, “Putin stressed that it would be wrong to abandon the traditional policy of military neutrality as there is no threat to Finland’s security.” Said.
Before launching a “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, Putin had demanded that NATO end its expansion into Eastern Europe and withdraw their military infrastructure from countries that joined the bloc after 1997.
source: Noticias
