MOSCOW, May 11. /TASS/. Finland and Sweden have been posing increasing threats to Russia since the two Nordic republic joined NATO, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second European Department Sergey Belyaev said in an interview with TASS.

"We can see these countries’ leaderships seeking to turn them into an advance outpost along NATO’s eastern flank," Belyaev said. He described Helsinki’s plans to host the North Atlantic Alliance’s tech centers and its active participation in NATO’s strategic exercises, among other things, as well as Swedish warplanes conducting electronic reconnaissance missions on a regular basis near Russia’s Baltic coast as "additional threats to Russia’s security."

Moscow is closely watching the integration of Finland and Sweden to the military bloc, he underscored.

Finland joined the alliance on April 4, 2023, and Sweden followed suit on March 7, 2024, as NATO ushered in its 31st and 32nd members respectively.