Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, warned NATO on Thursday that if Sweden and Finland joined the US-led military alliance then Russia would deploy nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles in a European exclave.
Should Sweden and Finland join NATO then Russia would have to strengthen its land, naval and air forces in the Baltic Sea, Medvedev said as quoted by Reuters news agency.
He also explicitly raised the nuclear threat by saying that there could be no more talk of a “nuclear free” Baltic – where Russia has its Kaliningrad exclave sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.
“There can be no more talk of any nuclear–free status for the Baltic – the balance must be restored,” said Medvedev, who was Russian president from 2008 to 2012.
Medvedev said he hoped Finland and Sweden would see sense. If not, he said, they would have to live with nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles close to home.
Source: Agencies
