PARIS, April 5. /TASS/. Finland’s accession to NATO is a provocation aimed at escalating the conflict with Russia, leader of France’s Les Patriotes (The Patriots) party Florian Philippot told TASS on Wednesday.

"I view it as a provocation aimed at adding more fuel to the conflict with Russia," Philippot said, commenting on Finland’s accession to the North Atlantic Alliance. "I consider this step to be inappropriate and aggressive," the politician added.

According to Philippot, "NATO is an entity of American imperialism, which should have disappeared when the Cold War ended in the early 1990s."

The French politician also called for France’s withdrawal from the North Atlantic Alliance.

In May 2022, Helsinki and Stockholm submitted their applications to join the US-led alliance but the process was blocked by Ankara who demanded that the two Nordic countries extradite people to Turkey suspected of terrorism and being involved in the 2016 coup, and bans on weapons supplies to Turkey should be lifted. In order to resolve these issues, Turkey, Finland and Sweden signed a memorandum listing specific steps that, according to Ankara, the two Nordic nations should take. Turkey’s parliament passed a bill ratifying a protocol on Finland’s NATO membership on March 30. On Tuesday, Helsinki officially became NATO’s 31st member.