Firmly Reminds NATO, President Putin Ensures Russia Responds To Deployment Of Troops And Infrastructure In Finland And Sweden

President Putin flanked by Russia's Chief of Military Staff General Valery Gerasimov (left) and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (right). (Wikimedia Commons/Kremlin.ru)

JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia will respond in the same way if the Western military alliance deploys troops and infrastructure in Finland and Sweden, once the two countries join forces.

Putin said this was related to Finland's and Sweden's plans to join the United States-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

"With Sweden and Finland, we don't have the problems we have with Ukraine. They want to join NATO, go ahead," President Putin told Russian state television after talks with regional leaders in Turkmenistan.

"But they have to understand that there was no threat before, while now, if the military and infrastructure contingent is deployed there, we have to respond well and create the same threat for the region from which the threat to us was created," he stressed.

He said it was inevitable that Moscow's relations with Helsinki and Stockholm would deteriorate because of their NATO membership.

"Everything is fine between us but now there may be some tension, there will definitely be," he said.

"It is inevitable if there is a threat to us," said President Putin.

President Putin made his comments a day after NATO member Turkey lifted its veto power over Finland and Sweden's bids to join the alliance, after the three countries agreed to protect each other's security.

The move means Helsinki and Stockholm can continue their applications to join NATO, marking the biggest change in European security in decades.

President Putin added that the goal of what Moscow called "special military operations" in Ukraine remained unchanged, to "liberate" the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and create conditions to ensure Russia's security.

He said Russian troops had advanced in Ukraine and military intervention was proceeding as planned. There is no need, he said, to set a deadline for ending the campaign.