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| Russia's nuclear weapons /19fortyfive |
International Military - Finland and Sweden began to be interested in joining NATO membership. Finland and Sweden have chosen to pursue separate paths and paces to further their interests in joining NATO.
Sweden has decided to examine various security-related options, including deepening Nordic defense cooperation.
Unlike Sweden, the Finnish government has set the wheels to accelerate its adoption to join NATO against a backdrop of security tensions. As is known, this security tension refers to the region that was triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to Defense News, Prime Minister Sanna Marin told opposition party leaders. Where the opposition party supports the government in the majority on this issue, that he expects a decision on NATO membership soon.
"Russia's invasion of Ukraine has caused Finland to review our security strategy," Marin said at a joint press conference in Stockholm on April 13 organized by Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson. "I'm not going to offer any timeline on when we'll make a decision, but I think it will happen pretty quickly.
In a few weeks, not in a few months. The security landscape has completely changed. Finland is expected to reach a decision to join NATO before the Alliance's two-day summit scheduled to begin in Madrid on June 29.
This report then became the main concern of Russia. Launching from The Guardian, Moscow said it would be forced to strengthen its defenses in the Baltics if Finland and Sweden joined NATO. This includes deploying nuclear weapons.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, a senior member of Russia's security council, said on Thursday that all his troops in the region would be supported if the two Nordic countries joined the US-led alliance. Medvedev's threat is the latest in many examples of a nuclear weapons attack from the Kremlin aimed at deterring western military intervention on behalf of Ukraine.
"Given the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks they have faced so far militarily, none of us can underestimate the threat posed by the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons."
Their accession to the alliance would more than double Russia's land border with NATO members, Medvedev said. Of course, we must strengthen these borders by strengthening land, air and sea defenses in the region," he said.