Vladimir Putin says Russia will respond if Nato deploys troops in Finland and Sweden
- The president says Moscow will ‘create the same threats for the territories from which threats towards us are created’
- Putin says there’s no need to set a deadline for his Ukraine campaign, and that the military intervention is going as planned
President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia would respond in kind if Nato deployed troops and infrastructure in Finland and Sweden after they join the US-led military alliance.
“With Sweden and Finland, we don’t have the problems that we have with Ukraine. They want to join Nato, go ahead,” Putin told Russian state television after talks with regional leaders in the central Asian ex-Soviet state of Turkmenistan.
“But they must understand there was no threat before, while now, if military contingents and infrastructure are deployed there, we will have to respond in kind and create the same threats for the territories from which threats towards us are created.”
He said it was inevitable that Moscow’s relations with Helsinki and Stockholm would sour over their Nato membership.
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Possible Nato membership for Finland and Sweden sparks concern in Russia
“Everything was fine between us, but now there might be some tensions, there certainly will,” he said.
