Russia has warned NATO and the US that it could take military action if NATO deploys troops to Finland.
Reports in Finnish newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, suggested that a new defense cooperation agreement between the US and Finland could lead to the creation of new military infrastructure in Finland.
Such an agreement would augment Finland’s NATO membership and lead to the deployment of US troops to bases near Finland’s border with Russia.
The report stated that Moscow perceives this as a threat and has warned of retaliatory military measures to protect national security.
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Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, stated that “Russia will be forced to take retaliatory measures of both military-technical and other nature to curb threats to our national security that appear in this connection.”
Finland officially became a member of NATO in April 2022, thereby increasing NATO’s shared borders with Russia to 1,584 miles.
Prior to this, five NATO countries shared borders with Russia or the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, accounting for approximately 754 miles of shared borders with Russia.
Russia perceives the expansion of NATO on its borders as a significant threat to its security.
