“Helsinki and Stockholm must understand that joining the North Atlantic bloc will aggravate the situation in the Baltic and the Arctic,” Zaitsev said at a briefing.
According to him, due to the expansion of NATO, these regions can become an arena for a dangerous confrontation.
He added that Sweden and Finland allowed themselves to be drawn into the geopolitical game against Russia.
On July 5, the permanent representatives of the NATO countries at the bloc's headquarters signed protocols on the accession of Finland and Sweden to the North Atlantic Alliance.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin noted that Russia would be forced to respond mirror to the possible deployment of NATO military infrastructure in Finland and Sweden after the countries join the alliance.
The Russian leader also called NATO a "rudiment" of the Cold War.