Vladimir Putin says Finland joined NATO hoping Russia would collapse, calling the move by Helsinki and Sweden a mistake that expanded Russia\u2019s border with NATO.<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Finland\u2019s\u00a0decision to\u00a0join NATO was driven by\u00a0the expectation that Russia would collapse.<\/p>\n
He\u00a0noted that Moscow and Helsinki had no\u00a0territorial disputes, adding that all outstanding issues had long been settled and that the Finnish authorities understood this.<\/p>\n
According to\u00a0Putin, Finland entered the Alliance because it\u00a0hoped Russia would fall apart and wanted to\u00a0be\u00a0ready to\u00a0take advantage of\u00a0that scenario. He\u00a0also pointed to\u00a0construction along the border near the Sestra River.<\/p>\n
The Russian leader said similar calculations had shaped many decisions. In\u00a0his view, there is\u00a0now a\u00a0growing realization that the situation turned out to\u00a0be\u00a0more complicated than expected, with problems emerging that are difficult to\u00a0overcome. Under such circumstances, he\u00a0said, it\u00a0would be\u00a0more reasonable to\u00a0look for ways to\u00a0restore normal relations and move toward mutually acceptable agreements.<\/p>\n
Putin described the accession of\u00a0Finland and Sweden to\u00a0NATO as\u00a0a\u00a0mistake. He\u00a0stressed that the move significantly expanded the border between Russia and the Alliance. According to\u00a0him, Russia previously had no\u00a0troops deployed in\u00a0that part of\u00a0the country, but now it\u00a0will have to\u00a0establish a\u00a0separate military district there.<\/p>\n
Finland announced its intention to\u00a0join NATO in\u00a0May 2022, after the start of\u00a0Russia\u2019s\u00a0special military operation in\u00a0Ukraine. In\u00a02023, the country became a\u00a0member of\u00a0the Alliance together with Sweden, which applied to\u00a0join in\u00a0the same period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vladimir Putin says Finland joined NATO hoping Russia would collapse, calling the move by Helsinki and Sweden a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[158,42155,113,42159,4335,42156,3561,238,42157,42158,132,14025],"class_list":{"0":"post-79039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-helsinki","8":"tag-finland","9":"tag-finland-nato","10":"tag-helsinki","11":"tag-military-district","12":"tag-moscow","13":"tag-nato-expansion","14":"tag-putin","15":"tag-russia","16":"tag-russian-border","17":"tag-sestra-river","18":"tag-sweden","19":"tag-ukraine-conflict"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116549289597665193","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}