Russia says a nuclear-free Baltic region would no longer be possible if Finland and Sweden become NATO members, alluding to additional nuclear deployments in Europe.
Finland, which shares a 1,300-km (810-mile) border with Russia, and Sweden are considering joining the NATO alliance. Finland will decide within the next few months, with a former prime minister saying Finland probably will apply in time to attend the NATO summit in Madrid in June.
However, on Thursday, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, a senior member of Russia’s security council, said that all its forces in the region would be bolstered if the two Nordic countries joined the US-led alliance, according to The Guardian.
Their accession to the alliance would more than double Russia’s land border with NATO members, Medvedev said: “Naturally, we will have to reinforce these borders” by bolstering ground, air, and naval defenses in the region.
Medvedev also explicitly raised the nuclear threat by saying that there could be no more talk of a “nuclear-free” Baltic – adding “the balance must be restored. “Russia had not taken such measures, and was not going to”, he said. “But if our hand is forced, well … take note it wasn’t us who proposed this.”
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko, went even further in his threats – saying Moscow would take “the security and defense measures that we will deem necessary” if the two countries join NATO, adding that the move would “seriously worsen the military situation” and lead to “the most undesirable consequences.”
The Baltics — the northeastern European countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — are members of the EU and NATO. Sweden and Finland are members of the EU, but not NATO, according to CNBC News.
If Finland and Sweden did join NATO, this would give Moscow “more officially registered opponents,” Medvedev added. He claims that NATO was planning to admit the two Nordic states with “minimal bureaucratic procedures.”
Moscow sees neighboring Finland’s potential inclusion into NATO as a threat to its national security, as the U.S. could deploy advanced military equipment in Finland if it joined the alliance.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said Russia’s threats “are nothing new.” His country borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Lithuania’s defense minister, Arvydas Anusauskas, added that Russia already has nuclear weapons in the Baltic region.
“The current Russian threats look quite strange when we know that, even without the present security situation, they keep the weapon 100 km from Lithuania’s border,” Anusauskas was quoted by Lithuania’s BNS wire as saying.
“Nuclear weapons have always been kept in Kaliningrad … the international community, the countries in the region, are perfectly aware of this. … They use it as a threat,” he added.
If Finland joined the alliance, Sweden would likely follow suit. Finland and Sweden, as well as Ukraine, are already “Enhanced Opportunity Partners” of NATO, the closest form of partnership with the alliance, and partake in military exercises with NATO states.
