The Russian President Vladimir Putin has a stronger military presence in Russian-Finnish border area announced and this stage with the NATO-Finland's accession justified. Moscow will establish the “Leningrad Military District” in the northwest of the country and relocate a “certain number of units” there, Putin said in an interview broadcast on Russian state television on Sunday.
Putin accused the West of having “dragged” Finland, which was previously neutral, into NATO. Finland joined the military alliance in April 2023, after requesting membership as a result of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine that began in February 2022. Putin has now said that Finland and Russia previously had “no disputes” and that all issues territorial issues had been “resolved a long time ago”. Finland's accession to NATO will now create “problems”.
➤ Read all the current developments in the war in Ukraine here
Russia and Finland: a tense relationship
Finland and Russia share a 1,340-kilometer land border. Relations between the two countries are very tense. Last Thursday, Finland announced that it would close all border crossings with Russia again.
Helsinki accuses Moscow of deliberately allowing migrants to travel to its western neighbor in order to destabilize it, which Russia denies.