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Danish TV2News wrote:

Putin lashes out at Sweden and Finland: - We will act on any enlargement

Finland and Sweden are expected to hand in their official applications for NATO membership in a matter of days.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is now reacting to Finland and Sweden's plans to join the NATO defence alliance.

Putin lashes out at both Nordic countries, which he says will face consequences from Russia if they join the alliance.

Putin calls NATO enlargement a problem and adds that it is in the US interest if the Nordic countries join.

Finland and Sweden are expected to submit their official applications for NATO membership in a few days - when they do, Russia will respond, Putin says.

- We will act on any expansion of NATO's military infrastructure in these countries, the president says.

At the same time, Putin stresses that he has no problem with Sweden and Finland as nations.

Putin's announcement came during a meeting in Moscow to which the Russian president has summoned the other members of the CSTO military alliance, which includes Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Muted reaction

Weekly Russia correspondent Andrey Kazankov calls Putin's reaction "subdued".

- He doesn't have much to threaten Finland and Sweden with at the moment, when his troops are struggling to win in Ukraine. At the same time, Finland and Sweden mean far less to Putin than Ukraine. He can live with Sweden and Finland pursuing an independent foreign policy. He cannot do that with Ukraine.

On Monday afternoon, the Swedish government formally decided that Sweden will apply for membership of NATO. The country's prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, says this at a press conference.

She calls Russia's war in Ukraine "one of the worst violations ever of the UN Charter".

- The best thing for Sweden's security is for us to join NATO, says Magdalena Andersson.

Already on Thursday last week, Finland's prime minister and president announced that Finland would apply for membership of the defence alliance.

The matter will be debated in the Finnish parliament on Monday, but as there is already a majority in favour of NATO membership, the parliamentary debate is considered a formality.

Has called Putin
On Saturday, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö called President Putin to inform him of the upcoming application.

The conversation between the two leaders was held "without tensions", Niinistö writes on Twitter and in a press release.

According to Russian news agency RIA, Putin told the Finnish president that abandoning neutrality and NATO membership for Finland would be "a mistake".

He added that it could have a bad impact on Russian-Finnish relations.


Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

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