The deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of Finland is an activity that threatens Russia and cannot remain unanswered. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized this at a briefing in Moscow on Friday. TASR informs about it based on the report of the TASS agency.
- The Kremlin considers the deployment of nuclear weapons in Finland a direct threat to Russia.
- Moscow announces the adoption of corresponding countermeasures in case of any nuclear threat to Finland.
- The Russian leadership claims that Finland’s actions escalate tensions and increase its vulnerability.
- Finland wants to lift the ban on nuclear weapons to align deterrence with NATO.
- The new legislation will allow nuclear weapons to be brought, transported, delivered and owned in Finland.
This is how Peskov commented on Thursday’s announcement by the Finnish Ministry of Defense about its intention to lift restrictions on the deployment of nuclear weapons on its territory. “The point is that by deploying nuclear weapons on its territory, Finland is beginning to threaten us,” Peskov clarified Moscow’s position. At the same time he pointed out that “when Finland threatens us, we take appropriate measures”.
According to the spokesman of the Russian president, such declarations by Helsinki lead, on the one hand, to an escalation of tensions on the European continent and on the other hand, “these are statements that increase the vulnerability of Finland itself”.
Finland is planning, according to Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen lift the ban on nuclear weapons on its territory so that its deterrence policy is in line with the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO), of which it is a member since 2023. Häkkänen said that “the government’s proposal would allow a nuclear weapon to be brought to Finland in the future, or to be transported, delivered or possessed in Finland, if it was related to the military defense of Finland”.
In May 2022, i.e. at the time when Helsinki and Stockholm officially submitted their application to NATO, the then Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marinová declared that the issue of deploying nuclear weapons or opening NATO bases in Finland was not part of the membership negotiations between Helsinki and the alliance.
