Russia ‘moves heavy military equipment including missile systems towards Finnish border after warning Finland not to join NATO’
- Russian heavy weapons systems ‘seen moving towards the Finnish border’
- Two Russian coastal defence missile system ‘filmed driving past sign to Helsinki’
- Finnish prime minister has said country may apply to join NATO by summer
- Kremlin has reacted negatively, saying NATO is ‘geared towards confrontation’
- Opinion polls have put 84% of Finns as viewing Russia as a military threat
- Sweden is also debating abandoning neutrality to join NATO
Russian heavy weapons including missile systems have been seen moving towards the border with Finland, hours after Russia warned its northern neighbour against joining NATO.
An unconfirmed video uploaded last night appears to show two Russian coastal defence missile systems moving along a road on the Russian side of the border that leads to Helsinki.
The missile systems are thought to be the K-300P Bastion-P mobile coastal defence system, designed to take out surface ships up to and including aircraft carrier battle groups.
The Russian deployment comes as Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said she expects her government ‘will end the discussion before midsummer’ on whether to apply for NATO membership.
Recent opinions polls by a Finnish market research company put 84% of Finns as viewing Russia as a ‘significant military threat’, up by 25% on last year.
In response, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov euphemistically warned the move would ‘not improve’ the security situation in Europe, and Moscow lawmaker Vladimir Dzhabarov added more bluntly it would mean ‘the destruction of the country’.
‘We have repeatedly said that the alliance remains a tool geared towards confrontation and its further expansion will not bring stability to the European continent,’ Peskov said.
An unconfirmed video uploaded last night appears to show two Russian coastal defence missile systems moving along a road on the Russian side of the border that leads to Helsinki
The Russian deployment comes as Finland and Sweden debate the merits of joining the NATO military alliance in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
The video clearly shows road signs leading to the Finnish capital of Helsinki. Finland, currently neutral, shares a 830 mile long border with Russia
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov (pictured left, with Putin) told reporters yesterday that the possible accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO military alliance would not improve the situation in Europe
Yesterday NATO announced two multinational naval groups of sixteen ships led by the Royal Netherlands Navy will be patrolling the Baltic Sea coasts of members such as Poland and Estonia to ‘maintain a credible and capable defensive capability’.
Finland, along with neighbouring Sweden, has historically avoided NATO membership, despite close alignment with the West, in an effort not to provoke Russia.
But the Scandinavian country shares a 830 mile long border with Russia and has been unnerved by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, having been invaded once before by the Soviet Union in 1939.
Meanwhile, Sweden’s ruling party formally began debating the possibility of launching a bid for membership yesterday, a move which would signal a complete role reversal in policy for the Scandinavian kingdom that has remained militarily neutral for decades.
Party secretary Tobias Baudin told local media that the NATO review should be complete within the next few months.
‘When Russia invaded Ukraine, Sweden’s security position changed fundamentally,’ the party said in a statement.
A current map of Nato membership in Europe. Sweden and Finland have historically avoided membership in order to not provoke Russia, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed their calculus
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin (above) indicated that Finland would decide whether to apply for Nato membership before midsummer, angering the Kremlin which said the move ‘would not improve the security situation in Europe’
In Sweden, the ruling centre-left Social Democrats have historically opposed NATO membership but the more than six-week conflict in Ukraine has reignited debate in the Scandinavian kingdom. The party, led by Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson (pictured right with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen), are said to have begun discussing the possibility of joining NATO today
In Sweden, the ruling centre-left Social Democrats have historically opposed NATO membership but the more than six-week conflict in Ukraine has reignited debate in the Scandinavian kingdom.
A policy reversal for the party, which ruled for an uninterrupted 40 years between the 1930s and 1970s, would be historic and could pave the way for Sweden to apply to join NATO.
The party, led by Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, are said to have begun discussing the possibility of joining NATO today, with the issue expected to be a central to parliamentary elections scheduled for September 11.
Sweden is officially non-aligned militarily, although it is a NATO partner and abandoned its position of strict neutrality after the end of the Cold War.
Having initially stressed that non-alignment had ‘served Sweden’s interests well,’ Andersson recently conceded that she was ready to discuss the policy and in late March said she ‘did not rule out’ a bid to join NATO.
Mr Peskov made clear that Russia would have to ‘rebalance the situation’ with its own measures were Sweden and Finland to join Nato.
The spiral of escalation has seen both countries increase their defence spending, with Helsinki announcing plans to spend £11 on drones and Stockholm adding another £243 million to their military budget.
Source: Read Full Article