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Thursday 30 June 2022 - 10:29

Putin Condemns NATO’s Imperial Ambitions, Warns Finland & Sweden

Story Code : 1001956
Putin Condemns NATO’s Imperial Ambitions, Warns Finland & Sweden
The Russian leader also said on Wednesday that he would respond in kind if NATO deployed troops and infrastructure in Finland and Sweden after the two Nordic countries join the military alliance.
 
Putin made his comment a day after NATO member Turkey lifted its veto over the bid by Finland and Sweden to join the alliance when the three nations agreed to protect each other’s security.
 
“With Sweden and Finland, we don’t have the problems that we have with Ukraine. They want to join NATO, go ahead,” Putin told Russian state television after talks with regional leaders in the central Asian ex-Soviet state of Turkmenistan.
 
“But they must understand there was no threat before, while now, if military contingents and infrastructure are deployed there, we will have to respond in kind and create the same threats for the territories from which threats towards us are created,” he said.
 
Moscow’s relations with Helsinki and Stockholm would inevitably sour over their NATO membership, he added.
 
“Everything was fine between us, but now there might be some tensions, there certainly will,” Putin said.
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