All news

Russia to be exposed to direct threat from Sweden, Finland if they join NATO — analyst

Respectively, any country that is a member of the alliance is a source of military threat to Russia by definition in view of the current state of Russia-NATO relations," Dmitry Suslov noted

MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. Russia will be exposed to a direct threat from the territories of Sweden and Finland, should these countries join NATO, the deputy director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics, expert of the Valdai discussion club Dmitry Suslov, told TASS on Thursday.

He stressed that two conflicting trends were observed in Sweden and Finland at the moment. On the one hand, the United States and NATO countries have been conducting a propaganda campaign to persuade one and all that these countries’ participation in the alliance would totally rule out the risk of a Russian aggression. On the other hand, certain forces in both countries argue that membership of the alliance will not increase their security, but on the contrary cause great harm to it.

"Should Sweden and Finland join NATO, Russia will be exposed to a direct threat from their territory," Suslov warned. "The alliance has formally declared Moscow as its adversary. Respectively, any country that is a member of the alliance is a source of military threat to Russia by definition in view of the current state of Russia-NATO relations."

Suslov stressed that NATO’s membership implied the deployment of NATO’s infrastructure. Moscow will have to respond to this threat accordingly, in view of the territorial proximity of Sweden and Finland.