will have to concentrate troops in the Leningrad district due to Finland’s accession to NATO – Kommersant
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President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had the best relations with Finland, but in connection with the country’s accession to NATO it would be necessary to concentrate military units in the Leningrad Military District.
“There were no problems. Now they will. Because we will now create the Leningrad Military District and concentrate certain military units there. Why do they need this, it’s just some nonsense,” said President in an interview with VGTRK journalist Pavel Zarubin.
At the same time, Vladimir Putin said that Russia has “neither geopolitical, nor economic, nor political, nor military” interest in fighting with NATO countries. “We have no territorial claims with them against each other, we have no desire to spoil relations with them. We are interested in developing relations,” he added.
On December 15, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian authorities regretted Finland’s accession to NATO and its defense agreement with the United States. Tomorrow, December 18, Finland and the United States are due to sign a defense cooperation agreement that will give the US military access to 15 Finnish bases. This agreement has already been concluded by Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Estonia.
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said that the Kremlin was taking revenge on his country for joining NATO by provoking a migration crisis on the Russian-Finnish border.
Read more about the worsening relations between Russia and Finland in the material “The relationship between Helsinki and Washington will be undermined”.
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