The Finnish authorities continue to assess the security situation and will soon make a decision on joining NATO.

This was announced by Prime Minister Sanna Marin.

“We have a modern army, and we can continue to work with NATO, as we have done for decades in joint exercises,” Marin emphasized.

Earlier in the Finnish Parliament, debates began about the country's accession to the alliance.

According to media reports, eight out of ten parliamentary parties approve the submission of the corresponding application.

It is also noted that the leader of the Left Alliance, Jussi Saramo, stated the need for a broader discussion before making such a decision.

In his opinion, the application for NATO membership will increase tension on the border with the Russian Federation and, as a result, Finland may become a target for the first strike in the event of an armed conflict.

The voting date for the NATO membership application has not yet been made public.

However, earlier Sanna Marin stressed that a decision could be made within the next weeks or months.

In turn, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on April 20 that this issue should be resolved jointly with Sweden.

At the same time, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson rejected the idea of ​​putting the country's membership in NATO to a referendum.

This initiative was previously made by the head of the Left Party of Sweden, Nushi Dadgostar.

According to Andersson, information related to this topic includes, among other things, classified data that is not subject to open discussion.

NATO position

The NATO leadership, in turn, has already stated that if Sweden and Finland apply for membership, they will be accepted with “open arms” in the alliance.

“If Finland and Sweden decide to apply, they will be accepted into NATO with open arms.

Both countries are our very close partners.

These are members of the EU with strong and mature democracies, and we have been cooperating with them for many, many years.

We know that their armed forces meet NATO standards," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

  • NATO Headquarters

  • AFP

  • © JOHN THYS

He added that once the bloc decides to invite these two countries into its ranks, "it will send a strong political signal that the security of Finland and Sweden is important to all NATO countries."

Stoltenberg also noted that the situation around Ukraine allegedly "indicates to NATO the need to provide support to European countries that are not members of either the alliance or the European Union, such as Moldova and Georgia."

The issue of Finland's and Sweden's accession to NATO began to be actively discussed after the start of the special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine.

Recall that Helsinki and Stockholm have been neutral since the Cold War.

Despite their non-bloc status and the development of their own defense capabilities, both countries cooperate with NATO and its members.

For example, Sweden provides the United States and other countries of the bloc with intelligence.

And since 1994, both Sweden and Finland have been officially NATO partners under the Partnership for Peace program.

In turn, representatives of the American and European establishment have previously stated that Helsinki and Stockholm can almost immediately receive the status of members of the North Atlantic Alliance after submitting applications.

Moscow's response

Russia has repeatedly noted that the refusal of Finland and Sweden from a neutral status will not contribute to stability in the region.

Thus, the press secretary of the President of Russia, Dmitry Peskov, said earlier that NATO is focused on confrontation and its further expansion will not contribute to strengthening security in Europe.

“We have repeatedly said that the alliance itself is rather a tool sharpened for confrontation, this is not an alliance that ensures peace and stability, and further expansion of the alliance, of course, will not bring additional security to the European continent,” Peskov said.

Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, for his part, noted that if these states join the alliance, Russia "will have more officially registered opponents."

In addition, according to him, if such a scenario is implemented, the length of the land borders of the bloc with Russia will more than double.

“Naturally, these borders will have to be strengthened.

Seriously strengthen the grouping of ground forces and air defense, deploy substantial naval forces in the waters of the Gulf of Finland.

In this case, it will no longer be possible to talk about any non-nuclear status of the Baltic - the balance must be restored, ”Medvedev wrote in his Telegram channel.

At the same time, he stressed that until today Russia was not going to take such measures.

  • Russian Foreign Ministry

  • RIA News

  • © Vladimir Trefilov

The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, noted that the European Union and the United States have long drawn Sweden and Finland into their structures.

If Helsinki and Stockholm go this way, Zakharova stressed, it will change the geopolitical situation in Europe, in close proximity to Russia.

“We made all our warnings both publicly and through bilateral channels,” the diplomat said.

"Annoy Russia"

In an interview with RT, a leading expert at the MGIMO Center for Military-Political Studies, Doctor of Political Sciences Mikhail Alexandrov, recalled that Finland's possible entry into NATO would be a direct violation of its obligations that it assumed following the results of World War II.

“Finland is internationally committed to being a neutral country.

And the decision to join the alliance is a gross violation that will negatively affect the country in the future,” Alexandrov says.

He also recalled that Sweden remained neutral even during the Second World War, and the majority of the citizens of this country do not want it to join the bloc, which explains the refusal of the authorities to referendum.

At the same time, the presence of a specific threat to Russia from NATO cannot be denied, the political scientist emphasized.

“The elites of these countries, among other things, were afraid of the operation in Ukraine, although they have nothing to fear if they themselves were neutral and remain so.

Apparently, in this way they want to take revenge for the defeat in World War II.

The descendants of former collaborators who served the Germans came to power there,” Alexandrov says.

The authorities of Finland and Sweden, judging by the current rhetoric, are confident that their membership in NATO is already a settled matter, Alexander Mikhailov, head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, suggested in a conversation with RT.

“The story surrounding the admission of these two countries to NATO is a direct consequence of the tension that has arisen between Russia, the alliance and the United States, because the bloc is controlled by the Americans.

All NATO decisions are Washington decisions.

If they had announced their entry or a proposal to join the bloc before Moscow offered them its demands for strategic security in Europe, this would probably be understandable.

But since this topic began to unwind precisely during the most heated phase of the confrontation between the Russian Federation and Washington and Brussels, this is a purely political discourse, ”Mikhailov argues.

The analyst believes that the discussion around the alleged accession of Finland and Sweden to the alliance, by and large, has nothing to do with the security of Finland and Sweden.

“The fact is that these countries are in the zone of direct destruction of all types of offensive weapons of the Russian Federation.

And in the event of a conflict, nothing can save them, not even NATO.

Therefore, all these politicized conversations are aimed at annoying Russia, ”concluded the political scientist.