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Russia views Finland's military exercises in line with other hostile moves — diplomat

"The statements of the Finnish prime minister, which essentially justify the terrorist attacks of Ukrainian neo-Nazis on the Kursk Region, have not gone unnoticed," Maria Zakharova said

MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/. Russia considers the upcoming exercises of the Finnish Army near Russia's borders at the end of August in the context of other hostile steps taken by Helsinki, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing.

"We note a significant increase in Finland's military activity after the country joined NATO. We have repeatedly noted that the foreign policy of the Finnish leadership today is being built in line with the line of the collective West to inflict, as they put it, a strategic defeat on Russia," the diplomat said.

"The statements of the Finnish prime minister, which essentially justify the terrorist attacks of Ukrainian neo-Nazis on the Kursk Region, have not gone unnoticed. And it is in this context that we view the exercises of the Finnish Army near the Russian borders," Zakharova said.

"In a calm peaceful time, which was recognized by all sides as an international legal system and there was no retreat to any rule-based world order, in this paradigm, in this legal framework, Russia recognized and is ready to recognize in the same framework the sovereign right of any state to conduct on its territory any, including military activities that are considered by the authorities of these countries as necessary to ensure their security in accordance with the norms established by international conventions," the spokeswoman pointed out. "But now a real hybrid war is being waged against our country by the collective West," she emphasized.

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Foreign policy Maria Zakharova

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