MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/. Russia will closely monitor Sweden’s implementation of its NATO membership and will plan its military-technical and other response actions accordingly, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing.
"On our part, we will closely monitor what Sweden will be doing in the aggressive military bloc, how it will implement its membership in actuality, and, accordingly, proceeding from this, we will formulate our response policy course and response steps of a military-technical and other nature in order to curb threats to Russia’s national security which emerge as a result," the diplomat noted.
According to her, Russia’s response measures will depend on "what will appear on Swedish soil, how contingents will be deployed, what events will take place and which strategy will be adopted."
The spokeswoman highlighted that Sweden’s accession to NATO and Stockholm discarding the 200 years of military non-alignment which was an important stability factor in the Baltics and Northern Europe in general "inevitably facilitate this part of the continent morphing from a zone of stability and cooperation into a zone of potential confrontation."
Zakharova added that "Sweden’s NATO membership will result in Stockholm’s substantial loss of national sovereignty."