Putin: Russia will respond if NATO infrastructure is deployed in Finland and Sweden

“The two countries’ membership in NATO itself is not a threat”… There is no discussion about the use of the former Soviet power in Ukraine

President Putin attends the CSTO summit in Moscow

(Ryanovosti, Moscow = Yonhap News)

(Moscow = Yonhap News) Correspondent Yoo Cheol-jong = Russia has no problem with Finland and Sweden, so their membership in NATO does not pose a threat to Russia in itself, but NATO forces If the assets are deployed, there will be a reasonable response from Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on the 16th (local time).

According to the Rianovosti news agency, Putin expressed this position in his speech at the CSTO summit in Moscow on the same day.

“As for NATO’s expansion through Finland and Sweden’s accession, Russia has no problem with these countries,” Putin said. not,” he presumed.

“However, the expansion of (NATO) military infrastructure to the territories of these countries will naturally lead to our response,” he said.

“NATO is essentially being used as a foreign policy tool for only one country (the United States),” Putin said.

“NATO is increasingly actively intervening in international affairs outside the framework of its own geopolitical objectives and Europe and the Atlantic region, controlling the international situation in the security field, and trying to influence other regional situations,” he said. “This, of course, deserves further attention from Russia,” he said.

Meanwhile, CSTO Secretary-General Stanislav Zasi said that the issue of sending the forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization to ‘special military operations’ in Ukraine was not discussed at the meeting.

“At the meeting, President Putin explained the special military operation in great detail to the other leaders,” Jasi told reporters.

In a statement after the summit to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the CSTO, the CSTO said, “We are concerned about the selective application of norms and principles of international law, interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states, and unilateral sanctions and restrictions that ignore the privileges of the UN Security Council.”

It is interpreted as a declaration of opposition to Western sanctions against former Soviet countries, including Russia and Belarus.

The CSTO is a military and security cooperation organization formed in 2002 by six countries, including Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, that belonged to the former Soviet Union.