Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia intends to react “appropriately” to the expansion of NATO.
Russia has responded to Sweden’s advanced NATO membership process with threatening rhetoric. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that, according to Peskov, Sweden’s NATO membership causes clear security disadvantages for Russia. He said that Russia will respond to membership with the same actions as before with Finland.
Also the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday, according to Reuters, that Russia plans to respond “appropriately” to NATO expansion.
Prime Minister of Sweden by Ulf Kristersson the Kremlin’s comments must be taken seriously.
“The danger is always there,” he told news agency TT According to Iltalehti.
“I don’t doubt for a second that Russia would do everything in its power to disrupt this process.”
Chief of Staff of the Swedish Defense Forces Michael Claesson said the Swedish newspaper Expressen in an interview, that although similar statements have been heard from the Kremlin before, they should be listened to carefully.
“Sometimes they do what they say,” Claesson said.
Russia commented on Finland’s accession to NATO in the spring in a very similar way. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and spokesman Peskov threatened Russia with corresponding countermeasures. According to Peskov, countermeasures would be “tactical and strategic”.
When Finland negotiated a bilateral defense cooperation agreement with the United States in May, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova announced that Russia would have been forced into “military-technical and other countermeasures” if NATO uses Finland’s territory.
Program director of the Foreign Policy Institute Arkady Moshes evaluate for HS in April, that Russia’s countermeasures would be very minimal regardless.
“At the tactical level, it can be information warfare, cyber operations or economic pressure,” he said.
Russia’s ability to exert economic pressure is also low, because Finland is no longer dependent on the Russian market as it was before.
For the military according to Moshes, Russia would not have the opportunity to take countermeasures as long as the war of aggression in Ukraine takes away its strength.
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