NATO: faced with Russian pressure, Sweden and Finland reaffirm their freedom of choice

The head of the Swedish government Magdalena Andersson reaffirmed Sweden's independence on the question of NATO and security policy.

Getty Images - Nils Petter Nilsson

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

With the war in Ukraine, Russia's other neighbors are under pressure.

Once again, Moscow has threatened Sweden and Finland with reprisals, should these two countries be tempted to join NATO.

And twice more, Stockholm and Helsinki have reaffirmed their independence, as well as their freedom of choice.

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From our correspondence in Stockholm

,

Moscow does not relax the pressure on its neighbors.

On Friday, February 25, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned that Finnish or Swedish membership of NATO “ 

 ”.

While Ukraine is under massive attack, this sentence could also be interpreted as a thinly veiled threat of intervention.

But it did not impress its recipients.

For Finnish Minister Pekka Haavisto, "

".

The head of the Swedish government Magdalena Andersson, for her part, repeated that it was Sweden, "

", which chose its security policy.

The two countries are not members of NATO, but work closely with the Atlantic Alliance, which since Friday has allowed them to have access to strategic information.

And if an accession is not in the news, the Russian threats seem to have the opposite effect to that expected.

A recent survey indicates, for example, that 41% of Swedes would now like to join NATO… An approval rate that has never been so high.

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• Russia

• Sweden

• Finland

• NATO