Translated material
Finno-Ugroz language
In the event of Finland, Russia will take response to NATO. This was stated by President Vladimir Putin at a joint press conference with Finland President Sauli Ninisto, the Kremlin press service reports .
“Imagine that Finland will join NATO, this means that the Finnish troops will already cease to be independent, cease to be sovereign in the full sense of the word, they will become part of the NATO military infrastructure, which will be on the borders of the Russian Federation,” Putin said. “Think, will we take our troops one and a half thousand kilometers, so they stay there?”
At the same time, Putin said that Russia "in any case, respectfully reacted to any choice of the Finnish people." He noted that it is the Finns should ensure their independence and security.
At the same time, Putin emphasized that Russia values the neutral status of Finland and treats him with respect. "Popragoning the statement of one of my Finnish friends, I could say that the organization of NATO would probably have loved with Russia to the last Finnish soldier. You need it? We - no, we don’t want, but you yourself decide what you need," Putin said.
In turn, Ninisto said that the Baltic countries are afraid of Russia. “On the other hand, NATO is considered in Russia as a big threat. And this is how this vicious circle is obtained. And in order to break this circle, the keyword is confidence. And to build up this trust, it is important that at least small steps we could move forward in the right direction,” the Finnish president said.
On January 29, the Finland Foreign Ministry said that the country's authorities launched the process of evaluating the consequences of the country's possible entry into NATO . The former Finnish ambassador in Sweden Matsu Bergkvist, the head of the Finnish Institute of International Relations Teye Tiilikainen, the former Office of Finland in Russia and Germany Rene Nyberg and the chairman of the International Strategic Research Institute and the Geneva Center for Security Policy Francois Aisbur were instructed to prepare a report on this issue.
The Party of Center, who won the parliamentary elections in April 2015 , opposed Finland to join NATO . According to a survey conducted in January 2015, only 26 percent of the Finns would approve the country's possible entry into the Alliance. 43 percent of 32 induced would come against.
On April 10, 2015, the defense ministers of the five countries of Northern Europe - Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Finland - published a joint declaration of the need to counteract Russia . They called the actions of the Russian authorities the biggest threat to Europe's security. To counteract Russia, the authors of the declaration propose to conduct more joint exercises, more actively exchange intelligence information and cooperate in the fight against cyber attacks. The statement also says about the need to cooperate with the Baltic countries.
In August 2014, the Finnish Minister of Defense Karl Haglund said that Finland and Sweden would open their territories to deploy NATO quick response forces . The troops of the quick response of the alliance will be able to freely move around the territories of Finland and Sweden in cases of disasters, emergency situations, threats to the security of these countries, as well as during the exercises. Finland and Sweden, for their part, take on the obligations to support and ensure the troops of the alliance.