posted on 04/14/2022 19:49
(Image credit: Getty Images)
One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies warned NATO on Thursday that Russia must step up its defenses in the region, including by deploying nuclear weapons in the Baltic Sea, if Sweden and Finland join the USled military alliance.
The threat came a day after Finnish officials suggested the country could apply to join the 30strong military alliance within weeks, and Sweden was considering taking a similar step. Both Helsinki and Stockholm are officially unaligned militarily, but are reconsidering their status in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine prompting mounting warnings from Russia.
Dmitry Medvedev, vicepresident of the Russian Security Council, said that if Sweden and Finland join NATO, Russia must strengthen its land, sea and air forces in the Baltic Sea.
Medvedev also specifically addressed the nuclear threat, saying that one could no longer speak of a “nuclearfree” Baltic where Russia has its enclave of Kaliningrad between Poland and Lithuania. “There can no longer be any talk of a nuclearweaponfree status in the Baltic Sea the balance must be restored,” said Medvedev, who was president from 2008 to 2012.
“To date, Russia has not taken such measures and would not do so,” Medvedev said. “Note that we were not the ones who suggested this,” he added.
Lithuania said Russia’s threats were nothing new and that Moscow stationed nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad long before the war in Ukraine.
The eventual accession of Finland and Sweden to the military alliance established in 1949 to provide collective Western security against the Soviet Union would be one of the major European strategic consequences of the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s attack resulted in a significant shift in public opinion about NATO membership in Finland and Sweden. Medvedev, without providing any evidence, attributed the change to “the efforts of local propagandists”.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels last week that the two countries meet NATO standards for “political, democratic and civilian control over security institutions and the armed forces.”
If Finland joins NATO, Russia’s land border with Allies would more than double.
Finland gained independence from Russia in 1917 and fought two wars against Russia during World War II, during which it lost some territories to Moscow. Finland has announced a military exercise in western Finland involving armed forces from the United Kingdom, United States, Latvia and Estonia.
Sweden has not been at war for 200 years, and postwar foreign policy has focused on international support for democracy, multilateral dialogue and nuclear disarmament.
Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad is of particular importance in the North European theater. The former Prussian port city of Königsberg, capital of East Prussia, is less than 1,400 km from London and Paris and 500 km from Berlin. Russia said in 2018 it had moved Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad, which was captured by the Red Army in April 1945 and ceded to the Soviet Union at the Potsdam Conference.
The Iskander, known by NATO as the SS26 Stone, is a shortrange tactical ballistic missile system capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads. Its official range is 500 km, but some western military sources suggest its range could be much longer.
“No sane person wants higher prices and higher taxes, rising tensions along the borders, Iskander, hypersonic and nuclear ships literally walking distance from their own homes,” Medvedev said. “Let’s hope common sense from our northern neighbors wins out,” he added.
Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said Russia had nuclear weapons stationed in Kaliningrad even before the war. “Nuclear weapons have always been kept in Kaliningrad, the international community, the countries in the region are perfectly aware of that,” Anusauskas said, according to the BNS. “They use it as a threat.”
Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine killed thousands, displaced millions and raised fears of a major confrontation between Russia and the United States by far the world’s largest nuclear powers. (With international agencies).