Mika Aaltola warns about Russian tricks: "There will be no NATO bases in Finland"
It seems that the Kremlin is trying to put pressure on the process of Finland's accession to NATO by spreading false information, Iltalehti writes. As an example, the article cites a tweet by a BBC correspondent in Russia.
Joonas Lehtonen
The head of the Institute of International Politics Mika Aaltola warns on Twitter about Russia's desire to influence the process of Finland's accession to NATO.
As an example of a Russian attempt to exert influence, Aaltola cites a tweet by the BBC's correspondent in Russia, Steven Rosenberg. Rosenberg noted that now Russian television is spreading information that military bases may appear in Finland and Sweden.
"When NATO bases appear in Sweden and Finland, Russia will have nothing left but to level the situation and respond to the new threat and start using tactical nuclear weapons," Rosenberg writes on Twitter, referring to Russian media.
According to Aaltol, the statements of state television are empty chatter about the possible response that Finland may face when joining NATO.
"You can't fall for these tricks. There will be no NATO bases in Finland. If they ever appear, it will only be because of Russia's behavior," says Aaltola.
As far as we know, Finland has not made any demands for negotiations on membership in NATO. Sweden, in turn, announced that it would not agree to the deployment of nuclear weapons and foreign bases, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said on May 15.
This topic was also raised in the Finnish Parliament on May 16: Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen stressed that such decisions are made in NATO only unanimously.
"We are not going to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of Finland. And no one is imposing this," Kaikkonen said.
Russia has long been vaguely warning about "leveling the situation" in the event that Finland and Sweden become members of the alliance. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated on May 16 that "membership of Finland and Sweden in NATO will not improve the level of security in Europe."
"This is a serious issue that causes us serious concern, we will be watching very closely what the consequences will be in the applied plan from the point of view of our security, which must be provided absolutely unconditionally," Peskov told a journalist.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, in turn, called the decision of Finland and Sweden to join NATO "a serious mistake with far-reaching consequences."
So far, there have been no more specifics about the possible consequences.
