MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. Finland will violate a number of its international obligations if it joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

"Accession to NATO will entail direct violations of international legal obligations on behalf of Finland, first of all of the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty, which stipulates obligations against joining or taking part in alliances aimed at any of the participants, as well as of the 1992 Russia-Finland Treaty on bilateral cooperation," the statement said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on April 28 that Washington would certainly back up applications from Finland and Sweden to join NATO in case Helsinki and Stockholm decided to submit them.

The Times newspaper reported last month, citing sources that both countries might join NATO already in the summer of this year. According to the paper, Finland is expected to file its NATO membership bid in June to be followed by Sweden. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told TASS in mid-April that Moscow would take required security and defense measures if Sweden and Finland joined NATO.