Russia warned it will respond if Sweden and Finland join NATO

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned Friday that the country will have to respond if Sweden and Finland become members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Obviously, the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, which is mainly, as you well know, a military bloc, would have serious political-military implications that would require a response from our country,” Zakharova said.In her weekly meeting with the press, the Russian official assessed that all member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), including Finland and Sweden, should have as a principle that “the security of some States should not be built at the expense of the security of others”. Zakharova’s words came just after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg revealed that he had invited Finland and Sweden, which are not members of the organization, to attend an emergency virtual summit of the alliance on Friday on the situation in Ukraine.  Sanna Marin said the country was willing to join NATO “if the issue of national security becomes more acute.” For her part, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson held a telephone conversation today with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky, in which she promised to send “military, technical and humanitarian aid.” 

Original source in Spanish