Russia sees Sweden and Finland’s plans to join NATO as a destabilizing move, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday.
“We see the expansion of the North Atlantic alliance as a completely destabilizing factor in international relations. It adds security neither to those who are expanding it, nor to those who join it, nor to other countries that perceive the alliance as a threat. According to the Interfax news agency, Ryabkov said.
Finland and Sweden announced their demands to join NATO in May, citing the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a reason to abandon decades of foreign policy neutrality.
The reason why Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he called a “special military operation” on Moscow on February 24 was precisely to prevent the expansion of NATO into Russia’s borders.
But Russia is sending mixed signals about the risks to its security as Finland and Sweden join the alliance.
In May, Putin said, “As for enlargement, Russia has no problems with these states – none. So in that sense, an enlargement to include these countries (NATO) has no immediate threat to Russia.”
Turkey, which is part of NATO, initially threatened to block Finland and Sweden from joining, citing Sweden’s support for Kurdish militants and bans on the export of certain types of weapons to Turkey.
However, Turkey withdrew its objections to the two countries’ NATO goals on Tuesday, as the alliance began a three-day summit in Madrid.
source: Noticias
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