Putin outlines position on looming NATO enlargement
Russia “has no problem” with Sweden or Finland but considers deployment of the bloc’s military infrastructure a threat

The possible accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO does not represent an immediate threat to Russia but the expansion of the alliance’s military infrastructure will “certainly” prompt a response from Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.

On Sunday, the two Nordic countries officially announced their NATO membership bids, despite multiple warnings from Moscow. Speaking at the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s summit in the Kremlin, Putin said that further NATO enlargement “is a problem that has been created completely artificially, since it is being done in the foreign policy interests of the United States.”

He added that the military bloc has been routinely used as a foreign policy instrument of one country – the US, but “quite persistently, skilfully and very aggressively.”