A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Thursday that if Finland and Sweden join NATO, Russia would have to bolster its forces on its western border and said a “nuclear-free” Baltic region would no longer be possible.
“If Sweden and Finland join NATO, the length of the alliance’s land borders with the Russian Federation will more than double. Naturally, these borders will have to be strengthened,” said Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, who served as Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012.
Finland shares an over 800-mile border with Russia, and if it is admitted to NATO, Medvedev said Moscow would significantly bolster its forces in the Gulf of Finland, the easternmost part of the Baltic Sea.
He said Russia will “seriously strengthen the grouping of land forces and air defense, deploy significant naval forces in the waters of the Gulf of Finland. In this case, it will no longer be possible to talk about any nuclear-free status of the Baltic – the balance must be restored.”
The Russian enclave of Kaliningrad is on the Baltic Sea, wedged between NATO members Poland and Lithuania. In 2018, Russia deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad, but it’s not clear if they are tipped with nuclear warheads.
Medvedev also suggested hypersonic missiles could be deployed. “No sane person wants higher prices and higher taxes, increased tensions along borders, Iskanders, hypersonics, and ships with nuclear weapons literally at arm’s length from their own home,” he said. “Let’s hope that the common sense of our northern neighbors will win.”
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden are moving closer to joining NATO. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Wednesday that the decision could be made “within weeks.”
While Russia is against NATO absorbing the two Nordic countries, Medvedev said Moscow views the situation differently than Ukraine’s aspirations to join the military alliance. “We don’t have territorial disputes with those countries like we do with Ukraine,” he said. “For that reason, the price of their membership for us is different.”
I just don’t understand what Finns and Swedes are thinking. They are trading an incredibly successful neutrality of decades for becoming a useless appendage of a military superpower and thereby becoming the target of Russian nukes for the first time. Seems a very strange decision.
It is and it shows the true nature of “peaceful” nations and their feelings toward Russia. Russia gets it. Reminds me of a line from a Bob Dylan song: “if you got nothing, you got nothing to lose”. Although the Soviet Union came down, Western nations, led by the U.S. of A., just kept trucking along as if the Cold War had not ended, continually moving to encircle Russia. Why? Economic hegemony. In the end it all boils down to money.
Because the Finns remember what happened 1939 and they aren’t willing to through the same thing again.
Nope. In case it’s escaped your attention, it ain’t ’39 no more. Russia is not the SU; it’s not a hegemonic ideological superpower. It’s a country with a lot of land and a declining population. The last thing it needs is more land and more internal disunity.
No, it’s the internal mil-ind complexes of Finland and Sweden who are trying to ride the wave of popular disgust with Russia to bigger budgets and more power. In other words, it’s all about $$ as usual.
Nope. In case it’s escaped your attention, Putin is trying to restore the SU again. And a war in the Baltics is very likely to drag in Sweden and Finland too.
Plus as Putin has shown that he’s very nervous by the fact that most countries in Eastern Europe have joined NATO, he might try to extend his buffer zone in the north instead.
The importance of controlling Northern Europe is increasing each year due to the global warming.
Just mainstream media nonsense. This is exactly the type of explanation that landed us in a 20 year war against terra in the ME after 911. “Putin is trying to reestablish the SU” is the new “they hate us for our freedom” nonsense. Just fodder for the MilInd complex and you’ve fallen for it.
ROFL.
yeah, we’re all laughing on the way to bankruptcy … enjoy the ride.
Hilarious, which are we??
Retarded Joe Biden will be gone in a few years and anyone throwing in with his lot may be sorry. Neutrality is a great thing.
Countries that were neutral in World War 2 came through just fine. Their citizens were much happier and alive.
Cutting the senile head off the snake isn’t going to change anything.
Agreed, it’s become structural. The US is kreigstadt both culturally (the gun fetish) and economically. And its corruption is so pervasive (the people and institutions deeply invested) and its power so ubiquitous it’s impossible to imagine it could be changed from inside.
Finland and Sweden should enshrine neutrality in their constitutions, and be done with it.
nato is all aggression, death and destruction, as both of those nations will soon see if they join. Not to mention an incredible waste of one’s national and natural resources
but they will buckle to all the Western propaganda and US threats behind the scenes.
it’s a shame for humanity, at this late hour, that so few leaders of western Europe have any sense at all
https://youtu.be/GpWQWk1aWJw
Please note: Finland and Sweden are right at the Baltic Sea, the only other avenue for Russian ships and subs to get to the Atlantic (beside the Black Sea). Of course Russia will aim nukes at them.
look on that map there – denmark and sweden totally control that tiny strait which is literally the only ocean access between russia and the atlantic. and in fact finland could single-handedly cut russia off long before they got to the baltic sea.
edit) ok someone else already said that
Well the Finns always had bad blood with Russia for that little war way back when. I also doubt they’ll be playing winter wars again with the Finns. But why Sweden? No one gives a monkey crap about their existence.
Russia has now resorted to nuclear threats since his Mediocre army cannot stand war against even smaller countries. He needs to remember the West has nukes too and theirs actually work.
Nothing new here, it’s well established that Russia already has nukes in Kaliningrad.
Won’t affect Sweden and Finland’s calculus at all, just shows how a desperate Kremlin is trying to stop Putin’s disastrous policies from backfiring. Sad and pathetic.
Russia’s nukes have not been aimed at Finland and Sweden heretofore … That would change.
Clearly they prefer that to becoming Ukraine 2.0, who would want the Russians attacking from multiple angles, destroying everything in their way and raping and killing civilians?
No, they made up their minds after the invasion and they couldn’t care less if it drives Putin mad or not. He can threaten them as much as he wants, it won’t make a difference.
No threats … just targets. I’m not sleeping any better if I’m a Finn.
Apparently they do, as a large majority supports a NATO membership.
If they are nuked, Russia will be nuked too, it’s called mutual deterrence ✌️
I’m sure it’s a great weight off their minds that Russians will die by their millions as they do themselves. It’s called MAD, Don, and it’s not a good thing.
Yes, it’s a great comfort to them, because it makes even mad vlad to think twice before attacking.
The one making Nuke threats is the Kremlin. No one else, remember that. Putin knows if he plays with fire, he’ll get burnt. So unless he is kamikaze….