Consequences of Sweden and Finland joining NATO

As one of Putin’s closest supporters warned NATO on Thursday, if Sweden and Finland joined the US-led military alliance, Russia would set up a nuclear- and hypersonic-missile bastion in the middle of Europe.

Both Finland and Sweden are contemplating joining NATO, which has a 1,300-kilometer (810-mile) land border with Russia.

In the event that Sweden and Finland join NATO, Russian defence minister Dmitry Medvedev indicated that Russia would have to bolster its land, naval, and air troops in the Baltic Sea, as well.

Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave is situated between Poland and Lithuania, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev brought up the nuclear danger directly on Thursday.

As Russian President Dmitry Medvedev put it: “There can be no more discussion of any nuclear-free status for the Baltic—the balance must be restored.

Moscow hopes that Finland and Sweden will see reason, Medvedev said in a speech. He warned that if they didn’t, they’d have to live with nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles right in their own backyards.

Russia, along with China and the United States, has the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons and is a worldwide leader in hypersonic missile technology.

Medvedev’s words prompted a follow-up response from Dmitry Pekov, who stated that “this has been discussed many times” and that President Vladimir Putin has given an order to “reinforce our western flank” in light of NATO’s rising military might.

When asked whether nuclear weapons will be part of the reinforcements, Peskov said, “I can’t answer… There will be a long list of actions that must be taken. “The president will address this at a separate meeting.”

A Lithuanian official claimed that Russia’s threats were nothing new and that Moscow had already moved nuclear weapons to Kaliningrad long before the conflict in Ukraine started.
The NATO alliance made no quick response to Russia’s cautionary tale. Even nevertheless, NATO’s likely expansion to include Finland and Sweden would be one of the most significant strategic repercussions of the conflict in Ukraine.

A substantial shift in popular and political opinion in Finland and Sweden towards military non-alignment has been triggered by Moscow’s military activities in Ukraine.

Finland stated this week that it will make a decision on NATO membership in the next few weeks, while Sweden is also considering the possibility of joining the military alliance.

There are fewer than 1,400 kilometres between London and Paris and 500 kilometres between Berlin and the Russian exclave Kaliningrad, which was previously the harbour of Koenigsberg, the capital of East Russia.

Iskander missiles have been installed in Kaliningrad, which was conquered by the Red Army in 1945 and given to the Soviet Union at the Potsdam conference.

The NATO codename for the Iskander is SS-26 Stone, and it is a nuclear-capable short-range tactical ballistic missile system. It has a declared range of 500 kilometres, but some Western military sources believe it might be far further.

Increased border tension, Iskander and hypersonic missiles, and nuclear-capable ships are all things that no rational person wants, according to Medvedev.

“We can only hope that our northern neighbours’ good sense will prevail.”

Medvedev is a prominent member of Putin’s security council, one of his primary chambers for making strategic decisions, and his remarks have echoed Kremlin thinking.

Russian nuclear weapons were already in Kaliningrad before the battle, Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said.

“Kaliningrad has long housed nuclear weapons… Lithuanian Prime Minister Dalia Anusauskas said the world community and the nations in the area are aware of this. Threateningly, they utilise it.

On February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine, displacing millions and killing hundreds in the process. This stoked worries that Russia and the United States – the world’s two most powerful nuclear powers – will engage in a larger conflict in the future.

To protect Russian-speaking Ukrainians from being persecuted, Putin justified the “special military operation” in Ukraine as a necessary response to US threats.

Ukraine has said that Putin’s allegations of genocide are bogus and that it is engaged in an imperial-style territory grab. “War criminal” and “dictator” are the words Joe Biden used to describe Vladimir Putin.

It is Putin’s contention the Ukraine crisis is only a part of a larger battle with the United States, which he claims is striving to maintain its hegemony while the world order erodes.

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