Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko has said that Russia will beef up its military presence in its northwestern territory in response to Finland joining NATO.
Finland’s ascension into NATO will more than double the alliance’s territory on the Russian border. The Russian-Finnish border is about 810 miles long and will now become more militarized.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced last year that Moscow would deploy more forces near the Finnish border. Grushko said further steps depend on whether or not other NATO countries send military assets to Finland.
“We will strengthen our military potential in the western and northwestern direction. In the event that the forces and resources of other NATO members are deployed in Finland, we will take additional steps to reliably ensure Russia’s military security,” Grushko said.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that Finland will formally become the 31st member of the Western military alliance on Tuesday during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
The ascension will come just two days after Finnish Prime Minster Sanna Marin lost an election to the center-right National Coalition Party, which is now tasked with forming a government that will likely be led by the party’s leader, Petteri Orpo. According to AP, the National Coalition Party has advocated for NATO membership for two decades.
I must say Putins efforts to repel NATO from his borders are going great. How many extra km of NATO border was just created?
I guess we will never evolve from a war based mentality, which does not bode well for the future of humanity.
Russia won’t beef up jack. They don’t have enough forces right now. All tight up in Ukraine showing their ass to the world. They will have to rob Peter to pay Paul to cover security gaps. All Putin will do is to employ scare tactics by moving Nukes and couple small military exercises near the Finland border.
Both sides are going to bluster but other than the shifting of a few men and “stuff,” as you suggest, it really doesn’t change much.
I’m more curious about which currency Finland will use for their future energy purchases from Russia than their NATO membership (other than we now have another mouth to feed because Uncle Sugar pays NATO’s bills).
The EU and NATO have moved away from Russia. That market has sailed and it is quickly moving to other alternatives/sources. Finland won’t be purchasing jack from Russia so the currency issue you presented is irrelevant.
Putin lost it’s best customers and thus its economy’s umbilical cord.
Russia is part of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) which has a larger GDP than the G7.
They are meeting in Durban South Africa in August to discuss various issues (there is said to be other countries attending, including Mexico) such as a new currency to compete with the dollar.
Putin is expanding BRICS, not “lost his best customers” and feeling pain.
Ok, good luck to Putin with that market.
Hi DJ:
Just a tad cynical?……………….
Thanks for making me laugh out loud ZaSu!
“Russia Will Beef Up Forces in Northwest as Finland Joins NATO Finland will formally become a member on Tuesday”
On Tuesday Finland will become ground zero for intermediate range nuclear weapons. If it comes to that mushroom clouds will be popping up like mushrooms after a late spring rain.
Finland would have been spared if they were neutral, but their Prime Minister thinks joining NATO is like going to one of her favorite night clubs.
Why do you think the Russians would waste nukes on a country that does not have nukes on its territory and is exceeding unlikely to have so in the future?
Keeping in mind that they have nuclear shelters for basically all the population living in cities, if the purpose is to kill civilians the Russians would do much better nuking London or Paris.
This suggestion makes very little strategic sense – so perhaps right up Putin’s alley?
No nuclear shelter constructed before 2018 will save anyone from Russias large megaton nukes, 200 million tons of TNT.
The 200-megaton weapon is a torpedo – not suited for nuking Finland – they have large megaton sized missiles – the point is why would they waste such weapons on Finland?
Is it that you think them incompetent – or that you think they would rather risk major fallout in Sankt Petersburg than risk having the Finns survive? To actually defeat the Finish nuclear shelters they have to make their nukes explode on contact so they will dig deep crates in the soil – that creates major contamination – and fallout.
What makes you think that they would spend a very large share of their nukes on killing only Finns when they have all of the rest of NATO to fight? In short all you have argued here is that they could if they were insane spend an inordinate share of their nuclear arsenal on wiping out the population of one of the smallest NATO members.
Has he been properly vetted by our Intel Community?
Finland has been buying cheap Russian oil for a long time now.
do they think that purchasing oil is some kind of ‘buyer’s market’?
probably Finland (and Germany) should be more careful of who is actually their friend and who is not.