The situation with Ukraine in the context of NATO expansion carries much greater threats than the planned accession of Finland and Sweden to the North Atlantic Alliance, the senator believesMOSCOW, December 26.
/tass/. The desire of Ukraine, aspiring to join NATO, to regain the lost territories creates the prospect of a military attack by the alliance on Russia, which will be suppressed in all possible and impossible ways. This was stated by the Vice-speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev on Monday.
"All Ukrainian military doctrines prescribe two things: firstly, joining NATO, and secondly, using new opportunities to regain lost territories. This is the prospect of a military attack, the use of military force not only of Ukraine, but of the entire alliance against our country. This is an absolutely unacceptable threat, and it will be stopped in all possible and impossible ways," the senator said on the air of the Together-RF TV channel, summing up the political results of the year in international relations.
In this regard, he stressed that the situation with Ukraine in the context of NATO expansion carries much greater threats than the planned accession of Finland and Sweden to the North Atlantic Alliance. "I admit that such hasty, emotional decisions of Finland and Sweden were an unpleasant surprise for us <....>. This is not the best scenario for the development of events, but still what is happening with Finland, what is happening with Sweden, is incomparable with what is happening in Ukraine. Because neither Finland, nor Sweden, nor Norway before that, with which we, as a NATO country, had a land border since Soviet times, they do not question the territorial integrity of Russia, but Ukraine does: it does not agree with the change in the status of the four new subjects of the Federation, especially does not agree with the change the status of Crimea and Sevastopol," stated the Deputy Speaker of the SF.
The politician also noted that the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO adds nothing "to ensure the national security of these two countries." Moreover, the senator believes, this may "create additional threats for these two countries." "Because, obviously, we cannot but react in military planning to the fact that we have an additional land border with NATO - the Russian-Finnish border - and the maritime border with Sweden," Kosachev said.
On May 18, Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO, but Turkey immediately blocked this process, demanding that these countries declare Kurdish organizations terrorist, extradite persons accused of terrorism or participation in an attempted coup in the country in 2016, and lift bans on arms supplies to Ankara. On June 28, before the start of the NATO summit in Madrid, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, then Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg held talks. A memorandum was signed allowing Stockholm and Helsinki to join NATO. According to the Turkish leader, Sweden has promised to extradite more than 70 persons involved in terrorist activities.
