Russia denies accusations of provoking Finland’s entry into NATO

Russia did not give Finland any reason to worry about its own security and did not provoke the state’s entry into the North Atlantic Alliance. This statement was made on Monday, December 25, by the permanent representative of the Russian Federation to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov.

As the diplomat recalled in his Telegram channel, shortly before the collapse of the USSR, the number of military personnel in the Leningrad Military District was about 200 thousand, and in subsequent years it was reduced to 30 thousand, and in 2010 the Leningrad Military District was abolished.

Ulyanov noted that “this is the most convincing indicator even for skeptics that Russia did not see any military threats from Finland, and it itself did not want to give the Finns any cause for concern.”

However, this did not calm Helsinki, so the Finnish authorities decided to “correct” the situation by joining NATO. In response, the Russian side naturally decided to revive the Leningrad Military District.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree, according to which the combat strength and strength of the Russian army is being increased to 2,209,130 ​​people. There will be 170 thousand more military personnel – a total of 1,320,000 people.

Russian Ministry of Defense explained this by the growth of threats to Russiarelated to the conduct of a special military operation in Ukraine, as well as the ongoing expansion of NATO.