Finland will become an official NATO member from today, which prompted Moscow to announce the strengthening of its forces in the border areas, while taking other steps depending on what happens to the land on the other side, but Sweden must wait, as there are obstacles that prevent her entry into the alliance from being completed. And the final hurdle to Finland’s membership was removed last week, after the Turkish parliament voted to approve Helsinki’s request but left Sweden’s request pending. Almost NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels: “We welcome (today) Finland’s entry into NATO’s 31st member, which will increase the security of Finland and the strength of our alliance.” and added: “For the first time we will raise the Finnish flag here at NATO Headquarters.
It will be a good day for the security of Finland, the security of the Nordic countries and for NATO as a whole.” Finnish President Sauli Niinistö’s office said: “The President will travel to Brussels to attend the celebration. Turkey is still delaying a decision on Sweden’s request, saying members of terrorist groups are hiding in Stockholm, which Sweden denies, and Turkey is demanding their extradition as a step towards ratifying Sweden’s membership. Hungary also refused to accept the accession of Sweden, explaining this with dissatisfaction with criticism of the policies of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
In Moscow, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grochko said: Russia will strengthen its forces in the western and northwestern regions of the country, and Grochko added: “We will strengthen our military capabilities in the west and northwest” on the borders with Eastern Europe and Finland. . “In the event that the forces and assets of other NATO members are stationed on Finnish territory, we will take additional measures to reliably guarantee the military security of Russia,” he stressed, according to a report by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said last year that Russia was taking “appropriate countermeasures” and would form 12 units and divisions in its Western Military District.
There are other measures announced by Moscow to bring its nuclear weapons closer to NATO borders. Boris Gryzlov, Moscow’s ambassador to Minsk, said that Russian tactical nuclear weapons, which were previously announced in Belarus, would be placed on the border with Poland, and he said . On Sunday, Gryzlov said that by July 1, the warehouses needed to store weapons would be ready. Gryzlov, a former Russian interior minister and former speaker of the Russian parliament, confirmed: “This will be done despite the hype in Europe and the United States.”
He said: Russia and Belarus are the lands of the Union State, and this is legal land, unlike the lands of countries where the US deploys its nuclear weapons.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week that Russia would deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus in response to the UK’s announcement that it would supply Ukraine with depleted uranium missiles.
Belarus is bordered to the north by Lithuania and Latvia, and to the west by Poland, all of which are part of the eastern wing of NATO, and these countries have been reinforced with additional military forces and equipment since the start of the war in Ukraine.
