Russia’s threat to Finland and Sweden’s on joining NATOs membership

Russia announced that if Sweden and Finland were to become members of NATO, the move “would have serious military and political consequences.” Finland and Sweden brush off Moscow’s warning on joining Nato.

Along with Austria, Ireland, Cyprus, and Malta, Finland and Sweden are two EU states that are not members of NATO yet. Since the end of the Second World War, both countries remained militarily neutral.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), formed in the aftermath of World War II in 1949, is an intergovernmental military alliance comprised of 28 European and two North American countries.

Russia’s leaders have long been wary of NATO’s eastward expansion. Essentially, Russia now seeks assurances that NATO will halt its eastward expansion, rule out the membership for Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, and reduce military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe.