JAKARTA - Sweden and Finland have offered to join as members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But it is not considered a threat to Russia.
President Vladimir Putin said that there was no threat to Russia if Sweden and Finland finally joined NATO. But it is different if NATO supports military infrastructure in the new Nordic members. The new Moscow gave a different response.
Putin, Russia's supreme leader since 1999, has repeatedly cited the expansion of the post-Soviet NATO alliance eastward towards Russia's borders as a reason for the invasion of Ukraine.
But this time, Putin was calmer in view of Finland's and Sweden's bids to join NATO.
"Regarding expansion, Russia has no problems with these countries - nothing. So in this case there is no direct threat to Russia from (NATO) expansion to include these countries," Putin said.
"But the expansion of military infrastructure to this region will certainly provoke our response," Putin said.
"What (the response) is - we will see what threats it creates for us," Putin told the leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which includes Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
The Kremlin leader's response contrasts with the foreign ministry's response. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the West should have no illusions that Moscow will only put up with NATO's Nordic expansion.
One of Putin's closest allies, former President Dmitry Medvedev, said last month that Russia could deploy nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad if Finland and Sweden joined NATO.
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