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Finland, Sweden won’t strengthen security after joining NATO — Russian senior diplomat

Throughout the decades, both countries enjoyed the benefits of the neutral status, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov recalled

MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/. Finland and Sweden are not moving towards strengthening their security, but are on the path to losing much of their sovereignty, since after they join NATO, their policy will no longer be determined in Stockholm and Helsinki, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Tuesday.

"Now, it turns out that these countries are heading full steam towards losing a significant portion of their sovereignty. Their policy will by no means determined in Stockholm and in Helsinki. In many key, I would say, aspects of ensuring their security, including in the military sphere, they will now be led. Their security won’t strengthen," Ryabkov said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

Ryabkov also sees the decision of Finland and Sweden to join NATO as "a serious mistake, a mistake of historic scope". "Throughout the decades, these two countries enjoyed the benefits of what was called the neutral status," the diplomat stressed. "It’s another matter that given the commonality of values and other things with the so-called collective West, they have behaved in the recent years the way that I personally saw no big difference from the point of view of their international positioning," Ryabkov added.

According to the senior diplomat, the behavior of Finland and Sweden was anti-Russian in many aspects irrespective of whether they were formally part of NATO or not.

On Monday, Sweden announced its decision to file an application for NATO membership. The application is expected to be applied shortly, together with Finland.

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Russian Foreign Ministry NATO Finland Sweden Sergey Ryabkov

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