Russia Threatens Nuclear Deployment if Sweden and Finland Join NATO
Meanwhile, video appears to show Russian military equipment being moved to border with Finland.
A few short months ago, Sweden’s new Prime Minister, Magdalena Andersson, said her nation would not apply for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) out of concerns for regional stability and security.
However, Andersson did note that her decision was subject to change…in the event of European conflict.
…Andersson emphasised that her administration will not refrain from stepping in if in case, any other European or Nordic country come under attack. Furthermore, Andersson also asserted that her country will bolster its defence cooperation with Finland and other Nordic neighbours within the EU, “alongside deepening its partnership with NATO and the United States”.
In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, consider her mind changed, then.
Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson met in Stockholm on Wednesday to discuss regional security matters in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
At a joint press conference afterwards, Marin said she could not give a timetable for a decision on whether Finland would join NATO but nonetheless said the decision was weeks, not months away.
Andersson said Sweden would not rush a decision, but the country’s assessment of the security situation would be thorough but expedient.
Svenska Dagbladet reported Andersson said the country would likely seek to join by June.
The ministers spoke as the Finnish government released an official assessment Wednesday of how Russia’s invasion has changed its security environment. This documentation begins the process that has been expected to culminate in a request to join NATO.
The assessment, known as a white paper, does not make a recommendation about NATO membership, officials said, but will be used as a starting point for parliamentary debate as the country weighs a historic shift in its defense position.
Finland and neighboring Sweden are officially nonaligned militarily, but Russia’s aggression has led to a dramatic shift in public sentiment. Wednesday’s white paper marks the start of the process for Finland, where support for joining NATO has jumped to 68 percent, according to a poll over the weekend.
Their potential accession would probably draw outrage from Putin, who has described NATO expansion as a threat to Russian security. Now, his brutal war there may bring the military alliance closer to his door.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, threatened to deploy nuclear weapons near the Baltics if Sweden and Finland join NATO:
Medvedev also explicitly raised the nuclear threat by saying that there could be no more talk of a “nuclear free” Baltic – where Russia has its Kaliningrad exclave sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.
“There can be no more talk of any nuclear–free status for the Baltic – the balance must be restored,” said Medvedev, who was Russian president from 2008 to 2012.
Medvedev said he hoped Finland and Sweden would see sense. If not, he said, they would have to live with nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles close to home.
Russia has the world’s biggest arsenal of nuclear warheads and along with China and the United States is one of the global leaders in hypersonic missile technology.
Meanwhile, it is being reported that Russian forces appear to have moved military vehicles near the border with Finland.
The unconfirmed footage, shared online on Monday, showed at least two Russian military vehicles moving towards the border with Finland.
In the clip, shared on Twitter by user OSINTdefender, the vehicles appear to be K-300P Bastion-Ps, which are coastal defense missile systems.
Towards the end of the 43-second video, the person holding the camera focuses on a street sign which gives directions to Helsinki, the capital of Finland.
…The video was shared on social media just hours after Russia warned its Western neighbor against joining NATO.
There are Unconfirmed reports today that Russian Forces in the Leningrad Region near the City of Vyborg are beginning to move Heavy Military Equipment including K-300P Bastion Coastal Defense Missile Systems towards the Gulf of Finland and the Finnish Border. pic.twitter.com/UUtq5GQ5ej
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) April 11, 2022
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Comments
The Scandinavian countries with their “superior socialism” model have been freeloading for years…Germany has also been doing so to a lesser extent.
Putin is now giving them perfect cover to continue to sit on their hands.
Meanwhile, FJB is slurping on his sippy cup and wondering where all the eight-year-old girls are hiding because he wants to sniff their hair.
Putin is not going to nuke anything over this. Well, he might, but it would be stupid, even with drooling, Sleepy Joe in the WH. Putin’s counting on the bluster to work, and it probably will because this WH is the most stupid, most inept, most feckless in living memory. A real president, like President Trump or Reagan, would bitch slap Putin so hard his head would spin. But we don’t have a real president. We have Biden and his Team Barack “Fundamental Transformation” Obama puppeteers.
So yeah, we might see nukes from Russia, but . . . it still seems unlikely. Putin isn’t an addled, drooling fool like that dismal disgrace in our WH.
It isn’t the use of nukes that’s the current issue, it’s the potential deployment of short and medium range nukes to areas nearer NATO areas. This would be a ratcheting up of the nuke forces of Russia in response to, yet another, NATO expansion along Russian borders.
I am mystified at this yearning on the part of the western leadership to return to cold war era tensions and move /counter move of nukes and missiles and troop deployments. There needs to be a slowdown of this effort and western leaders must make a very clear and convincing case for this course to gain the approval of their citizens before embarking on a dangerous path.
IMO, leadership of the west and Putin, Xi are like children in the backseat on a road trip squabbling about who is touching whom and who started it. We need an adult to put an end to this before the children escalate so far that no one can pull them back from their folly.
I don’t think that Putin will use nukes, but I do think that the Biden WH hopes he does … ahead of the midterms. Thousands, more?, dead? Well, it’s worth it to these freaks if it serves their idea of the “Greater Good.” This current cold war crap is all on FJB, no way would Putin be doing any of this if Trump were president. Being Putin’s butt-monkey is not a good look, but it’s the only one the FJB team can play right now because they are the ones in the booster car seats waving their giant multi-colored rattles from behind.
At present I don’t think he will either. Thats not really the question. The question is given a seeming one way ratchet in escalating rhetoric and generally seeking to push Putin’s buttons with no regard for consequences should he decide to push back …are we leaving him a way to climb down?
It would be much more preferable if he had a way to ‘declare victory’ and begin a return to normal v him lashing out like a trapped animal.
NATO expansion, as you put it, is nation states realising that mutual defence is stronger than standing alone against a known aggressor.
Should NATO refuse to include additional members because it means that instead of nuclear weapons pointing at Poland they’ll point at Finland too? I don’t think so.
I don’t see a yearning on the part of Western leadership to return to cold war era tensions. I see a desire on the part of Western leadership to avoid war in Europe, and to agree terms of mutual defence in the event that some war crime committing imbecile decides to stupidly attack a superior force.
How about focusing blame for the escalation of nuclear threats and for war in Europe on the person and country that are responsible for it: Putin the coward and his rapist countrymen.
The fact is that Russia views NATO expansion as a provocation. It doesn’t matter if we don’t see it that way. The actions of the west in the last several months seem to be confirming the Russian fears about NATO intentions and it’s hostility towards Russia.
Does this confirmation work to absolve Russia? Of course not. By the same token seeing the reaction of Russia to what it considers provocations in Ukraine why would the west deliberately create another in the Baltic and act as if we are surprised that Russia would take counter actions it deems necessary and then attempt to place all blame for increased tensions on Russia? For propaganda purposes sure but as a matter of real politic it’s flipping stupid.
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Russia views NATO expansion that hasn’t actually happened as a provocation.
Their illogical reaction is to invade the neighboring country under dispute.
Should they win, they will have an actual NATO member “on their border,” which will offend them again.
But NATO didn’t move an inch — Russia did.
henry,
NATO added 16 members since the end of the cold war. The supposed reason for NATO formation and existence was to serve as a counter poise to the USSR and Warsaw Pact Keith of whom have existed in three decades.
With that context it seems at least arguable the Russia may have a point about about viewing NATO as a threat, especially considering the proxy war that Russia and NATO fought for nearly a decade in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has always sought to have neutral or weak buffer States; preferably both, between it and it’s perceived threat. They have almost always fought to maintain or create these states when their perceived threat is viewed as encroaching.
Ignoring that history seems short sighted and arrogant, IMO. It’s easy to bluster and swagger but like Tyson said ‘everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth’. I fear our leadership is not aware that our potential opponent is allowed to fight back at at a time, place and manner of their own choice.
CommoChief, when you talk about “Ignoring that history seems short sighted and arrogant, IMO”, you are leaving out significant portions of that history: namely, the reason why those 16 countries became NATO countries.
They didn’t do it because they wanted to invade Russia. They did it because historically, they were the “weak buffer states” Russia had forced into that Warsaw “Pact”, and they didn’t particularly want to be buffer States again.
Yes, Russia considers countries joining NATO to be acts of aggression — however, it’s also clear that NATO countries consider acts of aggression to be a good reason to join NATO. While you claim we ignore Russia’s concerns at our peril, why does Russia get a free pass when it comes to the concerns of their neighbors, and that of NATO countries?
Particularly when Sweden and Finland weren’t even considering joining NATO until Russia invaded a neighbor!
Snow,
I am not giving Russia a ‘free pass’ to invade. I am attempting to provide context for why Russia did so. It seems useful to understand what goals or issues have historically motivated aggression by a potential adversary. Then we can avoid being surprised when they do take action; we won’t stumble blindly into a wider conflict.
You and others, seem to be arguing that the ‘world community’ should always act to prevent a Nation or group of Nations from invading a particular Nation on flimsy pretexts. Now apply the same to Iraq….not so easy to be consistent when we make sweeping generalizations.
Real politic is complex, not black and white. No Nation, even the USA, has pure and virtuous motives. We have engaged in acts around the world that are, at a minimum, morally questionable. I’ve performed a few of them myself.. By and large we did so because those acts were a necessary evil in the pursuit of a greater good.
The bad guys don’t wear black hats and the good guys don’t wear white hats. Every Nation acts to protect what it considers to be it’s national security interests. Each nation has a history which provides lessons as to how a nation will act in a particular scenario and we ignore that history at our peril.
There is has no leadership
We had it with Trump, they hated him, but the world had peace
Trump would have tweeted something insulting that would also have suggested he (Trump) was mentally unstable. The thought that he was dealing with an unstable (but not incompetent) person would be enough for Putin to perceive risk greater than that to which he was willing to expose himself. Conflict avoided. Putin is not a risk-taker. He waited until there was someone in the White House who demonstrated incompetence and weakness. He waited out the Trump administration, and now he has the perfect chump in the Oval Office.
I see what you are saying, but if Putin does drop nukes, we’re going to elect Trump (or someone else who won’t put up with that crap). Obama tried to de-nuke us, but we still have more than Russia. Putin’s not stupid. He’s pushing limits, bluffing, here because he knows the Biden admin will cave, but he’s not going to start a nuclear WWIII. Not only will he lose, but it’s just stupid.
You are closer to correct than you probably realize. What you call “pushing limits” is referred to as “probing”.
This is most correctly called a FTX with live ammo against an OPFOR. ( call it a “training war’ to debug his army in preparation for a real one)
That’s why Putin isn’t going to use nukes or chem/bio- thats not his objective.
He is also probing NATO, the US, the EU ( and probably China) to see where their resolve and military is also.
You can tell it by the way he is conducting operations. “stick and move”- if he were fighting a “war” he would be taking and holding real estate and destroying infrastructure.
Look at it objectively for whats actually happening as an analyst would and not colored by the adjectives the media is selling.
A training war? Training what, conscripts how to die?
What’s the point of training an army that’s losing all its tanks?
What are the well trained missile forces going to fire?
Is it normal to train a missile cruiser to put out fires by submerging?
Are Russia’s strategic plans being trained for here really to enrich tractor owners?
Face it, he would be taking and holding real estate if his forces were capable. They’re not. They’re losing men, material, strategic assets. They’re sacking and arresting generals and now an admiral. They’re exhausting their reserves, weakening the forces on all other borders, breaking their economy.
Probing? Objectively Putin’s flailing in a panic right now, because he knows his life expectancy is rapidly dropping.
Another “I did this” for Biden.
The “nuclear free Baltic” has always been a Potemkin promise…unverified and unverifiable. No one has ever been able to trust the USSR/Russian Federation assurances that their subs/ships/aircraft have been nuke free. In fact nuclear capable aircraft frequently violate Swedish airspace (Swedes are serious about protecting themselves and have pretty good Gripen fighters designed at home) and obviously subs are constantly there…and who can check? No one.
Russia is just like a street bully who hates it when the neighborhood bookworm learns martial arts. Whining.
Maybe some islands will be more militarized but that will stretch Russia’s finances. Yet now they have to watch the east where Japan has been making noises again about the Kuril Islands. China must now be rethinking the equation as to who can they beat? US or Russia…maybe Russia will be a better target. So Russia is going to be stretched.
Putin has opened a Pandora’s Box for himself and it’s going to be difficult for Russia and worse for him (I am beginning to believe). He has only itself to blame.
So Russia will bluster and make threats but now we know their military threat is less frightening than we thought.
So this is a good development.
Yes, I want Russia as stretched as thin as possible
Russia’s conventional forces are exactly what we knew them to be; a poorly disciplined, largely conscript force relent upon LT and CPT to do what western Corporal and Sergeant do. The rely upon fear and brutality to enforce orders because they don’t pay enough to develop a cadre of professional NCO. That’s why they keep losing Generals because those Generals are doing the job of a battalion or regimental commander in western armies.
Those shortcomings in funding are the result of tradeoffs to equip and maintain very good special ops and nuke forces. That’s where the professionals are because that’s where the funding is. Even granting all of your arguments about Russian incompetence does that make it more or less likely that Russia, if pushed, would resort to use of smaller nukes? Are we or the west in general leaving a path of retreat for Putin with face savimg fig leaf or are we backing him into a corner from which he comes out fighting not to win but to prevent anyone else from victory by using wmd?
Equip and maintain very good special ops and nuke forces? Like the Spetsnaz units that failed to take Hostomel, that have lost entire units in Mariupol, that are reportedly refusing to return to Ukraine?
Those special ops units?
Tell you what, you pack you kit, go to Ukraine, join the volunteers, go fight in Mariupol since you seem to believe it will be cakewalk.
Whoever claimed it would “be cakewalk” ?
Tell you what, stop making specious claims about failed Russian units, and I won’t need to challenge those claims.
That’s what you seem to be implying. Anyway aren’t you supposed to be packing your kit and making arrangements with the Ukrainian Embassy for transportation to the front?
As the cruiser Moscow is sinking (or sunk) in the Black Sea….. Really poor form in a modern battlefield. Reminds we of the British battleships in Jutland increasing firing rate by piling cordite and high explosive shells around the turrets… with the doors open no less…. up they went and then down they went.
Was Putin’s plan to unify Europe more solidly than the shaky EU could? Finland will give the West hundreds of miles of new NATO border with Russia extending the border that the Russians so desperately want to defend. There is no love loss between Finland and Russia anyway. With Sweden backing Finland, that makes the waterways tighter for Russia. Sweden also has has cause with Russia with the Stalin ordered shoot down of a Sweden security DC-3.
I’m curious Diaper,
What exactly is your “in uniform” actual “on the ground” real world experience in either military service or physical presence/working in an actual combat zone under “austere’ conditions?
I’m not addressing you or your opinion(s)but just to see if there is a basis other than looking at a screen and a browser.
Have you “been there and done that”?
I wouldn’t be allowed in a combat role, but I’ve been in a war, I’ve had bullets hitting my home, I’ve survived terrorist attacks, I’ve needed treatment in a military hospital.
None of which is relevant, but thanks for asking.
I’m curious though. Do you have any operational military experience and/or are you professionally trained to rapidly gather, analyse and assess a vast range of unstructured data, draw accurate conclusions and make appropriate risk based decisions?
Only asking..
Sorry, all discussions around the crimes of Russia and its troops aside, I can actually understand Putin’s fears and concerns, that after the war is over NATO will apply to join Ukraine.
No, Russia will not invade Ukraine
A large-scale military operation does not fit into Moscow’s cost-benefit calculus.
Russia will NEVER invade Ukraine.
Despite all the hard words from Moscow, Russia’s record shows that an invasion is unlikely.
And so on and so on.
Now Russia threatens nuclear deployment. Oh no, Russia would never do that.
This is propaganda. Entirely propaganda. Not pretending otherwise.
But it’s.. well..
https://nitter.net/pilotmsv/status/1513131559834079234
Nitter isn’t a good website. Reload as often as you need to watch the video. Watch the video. Put it full screen.
Watch the video.
This is propaganda. Pretend this didn’t work have an emotional impact.
What is wrong with Russia deploying nukes? Haven’t NATO forces (US included) deployed nukes aimed at them? Not launched, just deployed.
I’m very dubious of the functional capacity of their nuclear weapons.
MUST READ COLD WAR MATERIAL
Ben Mcintyre: The Spy and the Traitor
This is secondary to the story, which is about the spy. However, the Soviets didn’t have nearly as much going on with their nuclear game as we thought. A lot of their game was making us think they had more than they did.
After watching them screw up the Ukraine invasion, I’m less impressed with Putin than before. He and his cronies are bullies and not real leaders. Thugs don’t get stuff done. Arresting and torturing his own people doesn’t speak much about your power when at the same time your own military can’t even manage a supply line to the country next door.
Granted the west is pretty weak as well. This will all go badly. Very very badly.
“I’m very dubious of the functional capacity of their nuclear weapons.”
Some work. Some don’t.
It’s Russian Roulette on a very large scale.
“Russia Threatens Nuclear Deployment if Sweden and Finland Join NATO”
Uh huh. Then what?
Newsflash – it’s not 1960 anymore. One doesn’t need to (or want to) move nukes up to a border to threaten the bubbas on the other side. Especially when that puts your targets upwind and would turn your country into a graveyard of radioactive fallout if you shoot them. It’s a piss-weak threat meant to impress the feckless and ignorant media.
Now, if you had a Front’s worth of mountain and ski troops to threaten them with they might pay a bit more attention, but that didn’t go too well last time you tried it on Finland did it?
Lithuanian Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas responded by saying the Russian threat is “quite strange” given Russia currently has nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave on the Baltic.
Courtesy, The Late Show
It’s no longer a theoretical issue. Finland and Sweden have been credibly threatened for the very first time. They realize that placating the Red Bear with no backup could get them attacked and/or killed.
Sweden, Finland — Good of you to finally make it to NATO’s 79th birthday party. 🎈