The Institute for the Study of War writes that the Russian Foreign Ministry has declared that Finland has "lost its independence. This Kremlin rhetoric is also repeated in the context of Ukraine, where the Russian Federation claims that NATO "controls Kyiv" and uses the country as a tool "against Russia.
"Kuznetsov (Russian ambassador to Finland - ed.) threatened Finland and the NATO alliance as a whole. He claims that Russia will be forced to respond to NATO's military build-up and weapons, or the deployment of nuclear weapons in Finland and that Russia's response will be adequate, but not necessarily symmetrical," ISW writes.
The ambassador also said that by joining NATO, Finland has joined "the party of war until Russia is defeated." Kuznetsov said that Helsinki had no choice but to improve relations with Russia, emphasizing geographical proximity.
He accused the country of worsening Russian-Finnish relations by ignoring the artificial migration crisis created by the Kremlin on the border with Finland, as well as threats from Russia.
"ISW continues to believe that Russian threats to NATO member states are aimed at deterring the West. At the same time, statements by Russian officials and diplomats about imaginary threats from NATO are aimed at creating information conditions to justify and support a perceived long-term geopolitical confrontation with the West," the institute concluded.
