13.04.2022, Moscow.
A “fundamental transformation” is being discussed in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The acceptance of Sweden and Finland into the military bloc of NATO is likely to become an unpleasant fact in the summer of 2022. The Times, a British newspaper, citing US sources, reported on the desire of the two Scandinavian countries to join the alliance. Events are developing according to the scenario predicted by experts in advance – Washington is completing the formation of an “iron fist” on the north-western borders of Russia.
Finland is ready to apply for NATO membership as early as June 2022, and Sweden will follow suit, The Times reported. A US source described the likely desire of Helsinki and Stockholm to join NATO as a strategic miscalculation by Russia. Note that such a significant statement did not come directly from the leaders of Sweden and Finland themselves, but from an influential newspaper in Britain.
A “fundamental transformation” is being discussed in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. According to an interview with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in The Telegraph, NATO has already concentrated about 40,000 soldiers on its eastern flank – an order of magnitude more than at the end of 2021. “I think it is obvious that we are faced with a new reality, new security environment, a new normal,” Stoltenberg stressed.
He said that the organization will continue to amass forces in this area, and NATO leaders have asked military commanders to make provision for NATO’s long-term adaptation. Stoltenberg said that the alliance is making plans for a full-scale deployment of armed forces near the border with Russia.
Simultaneously with the loud statements of diplomats in Sweden and Finland, political preparations are underway. On April 9, the third largest party in the country, the Swedish Democrats, supported the accelerated accession of Sweden to NATO. Although the party had previously been considered a major opponent of such decisions in parliament. It can now be assumed that the Swedish Democrats will agree with the Social Democrats and the Moderate Coalition Party on the issue. At the moment Sweden is only talking about its readiness to join NATO after Finland.
Finland is not the first year to develop its own army and make a claim to be an active player in the Arctic region. In 2021, negotiations were held between Helsinki and Washington on the delivery of 64 fifth-generation F-35 and 50 F/A-18E/F combat aircrafts. And in early 2022, Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin said that the country does not exclude the very possibility of joining NATO.
Vladimir Chichilimov © Rossa Primavera News Agency
Experts put forward various versions of Finland’s military interests. These include the country’s own ambitions, which can control the Northern Sea Route and the Arctic, and an opportunity for Washington and Brussels to put serious pressure on Russia, as Finland’s participation in NATO increases the threat to St. Petersburg.
Assessments from Russia
The rumors from the British press provoked a restrained reaction from Moscow. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the decision by Sweden and Finland would have a negative impact on the situation in Europe. “Further expansion will not bring more peace to the European continent,” Peskov indicated.
Dmitry Belik, a member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, spoke in the same vein. In his interview with Izvestia, Belik described the difficult situation in which Sweden and Finland would find themselves.
The US will increase the military contingent on the territory of Scandinavia, and Russia will have to take appropriate measures, said the member of the committee of the State Duma of Russia. “Finns and Swedes will obviously not benefit from NATO membership, we can already see a split in society on this issue,” Belik said.
“Biden has one cross-cutting theme in his political biography – NATO expansion. That’s it. He has not dealt with anything else in foreign policy,” Sergey Kurginyan, political analyst and leader of the Essence of Time movement, explained on March 12 on the air of the Right to Know program on TVC. What we see from his words is that the United States and the United Kingdom are pushing Finland and Sweden toward joining the military alliance.
Eastern Europe
While Scandinavia is still vague, Poland has been very active. In late March, Warsaw sent signals to Washington that it could deploy a “peacekeeping” mission in the western regions of Ukraine as part of NATO. The Polish General Staff has pulled significant units to the borders with Ukraine, and the US contingent in Poland has moved to the border with Belarus.
Warsaw’s audacious wishes have not yet met with unambiguous support in NATO itself, above all from Germany and the United States. Maybe NATO is not yet ready for a full-fledged war with Russia, or maybe this is how the internal contradictions between the “old” and “new” Europe manifest themselves.
Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee Jarosław Kaczyński did not stop at small things and offered Washington to deploy nuclear weapons in the country.
“If the Americans asked us to place nuclear weapons in Poland, we would be open to it. It would significantly strengthen deterrence of Moscow,” Kaczyński said in late March.
The US is taking every opportunity to assemble a significant military capability around Russia. It is in Washington’s interests to sever Russia’s political and economic ties with Europe as much as possible. In this context, it is not surprising that Finland and Sweden, which previously were conditionally neutral, are being dragged into a military alliance.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
