On Thursday, Russia assured that it does not pose a “threat” to Finland and Sweden, two countries that want to join NATO but whose entry is still blocked by Ankara.
Turkey and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have decided on Finland’s accession after nearly a year of impasse, Helsinki said on Wednesday, although no date was announced.
“We have repeatedly expressed our regret about this orientation towards the accession of Finland and Sweden, we have said several times that Russia does not in any way pose a threat to these countries,” Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov said on Thursday, France Presse and Agerpres reported.
According to him, the two countries “have no disputes” with Russia.
“They have never threatened us, so we are not a threat to them, and we can only regret” their ambitions to join the North Atlantic Alliance, Peskov also told reporters.
Russia considers the expansion of NATO to its borders a threat
The candidacies of Sweden and Finland are a direct consequence of the Russian offensive on Ukraine, while Helsinki and Stockholm see this as a sign of a major threat to European security from Moscow, AFP notes.
Turkey, whose green wave is needed as a NATO member, currently refuses to ratify the two candidacies.
Russia’s neighbor Finland has so far tried to maintain a policy of neutrality and good-neighborliness with Moscow. Sweden also used a policy of non-alignment.
Russia considers NATO’s expansion to its borders a fundamental threat to its security, and Ukraine’s desire to join the alliance was one of the reasons cited by Moscow to justify an attack launched in February 2022 against the country.
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About the incident with the American drone that crashed in the Black Sea
Among other things, Peskov said that the Russian military will raise an American drone from the seabed if they consider it necessary for Russia’s security interests.
“These are the prerogatives of the army. If they consider it necessary to do this for our interests and security in the Black Sea, they will do it,” the Kremlin spokesman said on Thursday, as quoted by the official TASS news agency. Thus, he answered the question of whether Russia would try to retrieve a drone from the bottom of the sea and explore it.
At the same time, Peskov admitted that he did not know exactly the plans of the army. “These are their prerogatives, and questions should be addressed to them,” the president’s spokesman explained.
On Tuesday, the United States accused the Russian Air Force of “intercepting and striking” an American Reaper drone over the Black Sea and causing it to crash.
Russia rejected these accusations, admitting only that two of its fighter jets intercepted an American drone that was detected “in the area of the Crimean Peninsula” and which was advancing “in the direction” of Russia’s borders, France Presse reminds.
- Read also: VIDEO The first footage of the interception of an American drone by Russian planes / Proof that the Russians lied
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Source: Hot News
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