MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. NATO and US forces will linger around St. Petersburg not only in the southwest, but also in the northwest, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.
"Helsinki and Stockholm’s NATO bids, Finland’s accession to the alliance and its decision to conclude an agreement with the US allowing the deployment of American forces on Finnish territory have significantly deteriorated the military and political situation in Europe. It has also made it so that we now have to solve tasks regarding our own security. Suffice to say, now US and NATO forces will loom over St. Petersburg not only from the southwest, where there is a 105-kilometer [joint] border, but also from the northwest, where it is about 140 kilometers," he pointed out at a State Duma plenary session on Tuesday.
Ryabkov added that the foreign troops on the territory of Finland were not restricted by the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE).
"For Russia, of course, such restrictions would remain even if we formally suspended our participation in the treaty," the senior diplomat added.