Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned of potential problems with Finland going forward after the northern European country strengthened ties with the United States and effectively closed its border with Russia.
During a Dec. 17 interview on the government owned Rossiya state TV, the long-time president of Russia laid the blame for any issues with Finland squarely on the West, which he says “dragged Finland into NATO” following the invasion of Ukraine. In April, Finland became the 31st nation to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“Did we have any disputes with them? All disputes, including territorial ones in the mid-20th century, have long been solved,” Mr. Putin said.
“We had the friendliest, most cordial relations. There were no problems there; now there will be because we will create the Leningrad military district and concentrate a certain amount of military units there.”
However, Mr. Putin did acknowledge that while everything was developing economically, there were some problems between the two countries “linked to the necessity to develop timber processing within the country.” But in his opinion, “that was all—just a small detail in reality.”
According to the Russian government, it plans to reorganize military divisions and deploy more troops in the northwest in response to what it sees as “NATO’s desire to build up military potential near the Russian borders.”
Biden Warns of More Russian Aggression
Established in the aftermath of World War II, NATO members are required to defend each other against third-party attacks by non-member nations. U.S. President Joe Biden said during a recent press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that, in his opinion, Russia would likely seek to attack NATO next if it wins the war in Ukraine.“Putin is banking on the United States failing to deliver for Ukraine. We must, we must, we must prove him wrong,” President Biden said.
“Today, Ukraine’s freedom is on the line. But if we don’t stop Putin, it will endanger the freedom of everyone almost everywhere. Putin will keep going, and would-be aggressors everywhere will be emboldened to try to take what they can by force,” he added.
“Russia has no reason, no interest, no geopolitical interest, neither economic, political nor military to fight with Nato countries,” Mr. Putin said.
“There is no desire to spoil relations with them; we are interested in developing relations,” he added.
Mr. Putin also took the chance to frame any tensions with NATO as a result of other country’s actions, rather than anything Russia has done. He claims other world leaders are attempting to stop Russia from becoming a strong world power by any means necessary.
“With whom did we have problems? Nobody. They’re the ones who are artificially creating problems with us,” he said. “Because they don’t want such a competitor in the form of Russia. That’s all there is to it.”
