Putin Open to Finland and Sweden’s NATO Membership

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states at the Kremlin in Moscow, on May 16, 2022. Alexander Nemenov/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

As Sweden and Finland move ahead with their plans to join NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that he has no issues with the decisions, provided there is no military threat to his nation.

“As to enlargement, Russia has no problem with these states—none. And so in this sense there is no immediate threat to Russia from an expansion (of NATO) to include these countries,” Putin told the leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russian-dominated military alliance of former Soviet states, Reuters reported.