MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/. The Western countries' toying with nuclear weapons is a matter of particular concern, and the situation holds grim prospects, Vladislav Maslennikov, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of European Cooperation and Russia's Senior Arctic Official, has told a news briefing.
"For decades, the Baltic Sea was a very stable, peaceful region. As soon as NATO decided to venture there – or rather, its member states decided they needed to strengthen their defense (in their view) in the Baltic (though it is, in fact, more of an offensive posture) – the Baltic ceased to be the peaceful and stable region it once was. Now, generally speaking, we are witnessing the beginning of that same process in the Arctic region," he noted.
"Against this backdrop, the attempts of our Western Arctic neighbors to toy with nuclear weaponry is a source of particular concern. A recent development adding to this picture – which is, let us say, grim rather than promising – was Finland joining the French nuclear deterrence initiative. This follows Helsinki's decision this summer to lift restrictions on the importation of nuclear weapons into the country, at least during peacetime," Maslennikov emphasized.
The senior diplomat added that Russia is the only country in the Arctic Council that is not a member of the NATO alliance.
"Such erosion of the non-proliferation policy and deliberate actions to further undermine it can only be described as utterly reckless and extremely dangerous. The European Union is creating additional obstacles to the development of the Russian Arctic and international cooperation in the North by adopting successive packages of sanctions that are illegitimate under international law," he noted.