On Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia would retaliate if NATO set up infrastructure and troops in Finland and Sweden following their enlistment in the U.S.-led military alliance.
“With Sweden and Finland, we don’t have the problems that we have with Ukraine. They want to join NATO, go ahead,” Putin stated on Russian state television following talks with local officials in Turkmenistan, an ex-Soviet state in Central Asia.
“But they must understand there was no threat before, while now if military contingents and infrastructure are deployed there, we will have to respond in kind and create the same threats for the territories from which threats towards us are created.”
He asserted that Moscow’s relations with Helsinki and Stockholm will inevitably deteriorate as a result of their NATO membership.
“Everything was fine between us, but now there might be some tensions, there certainly will,” he said. “It’s inevitable if there is a threat to us.”
Putin made his remark a day after NATO member Turkey removed its veto over Finland and Sweden’s application to join the alliance following their agreement to defend each other’s security.
The decision allows Helsinki and Stockholm to move forward with their NATO membership applications, signalling the biggest change in European security in decades.