Russia does not trust Sweden’s and Finland’s words not to deploy troops if it joins NATO.
Sergei Lavrov tells the BBC that “no one will listen to Finland and Sweden”.
– We want to see what happens in reality, on the ground, he says.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was interviewed this week by BBC reporter Steve Rosenberg. In a 25 minute long video on it British Channel’s Youtube Lavrov comments on, among other things, Sweden’s and Finland’s applications to the NATO defense alliance.
According to Lavrov, Sweden and Finland have been “under the command of Anglo-Saxons for a long time”.
– The European Union is losing its significance.
BBC: Is not this a failure for Russian diplomacy?
– How?
BBC: That Sweden and Finland are about to become members of NATO.
Sweden and Finland exercise their sovereign rights as their governments deem appropriate. In addition, they do not take the opinion of their people into account, in the same way that NATO ignores the opinion of people in different countries when it carries out its missions, he says.
“No one will listen to Finland or Sweden”
When the BBC reporter Steve Rosenberg asks Sergei Lavrov if it is not a threat to Russia, he replies “Let’s see what finally happens” and that Russia has often said that when or if Sweden and Finland join NATO, “we want to see what happens in reality, on the ground ”.
– Will weapons be sent there? Will new NATO troops be based there? And I assure you, no one will listen to Finland or Sweden.
Lavrov stressed that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that the US plans to increase its military presence in Europe, but that nothing was decided whether it will be permanent or temporary.
– He did not say “We will need to consult with our European allies”. He does not want to listen to them, Lavrov said, emphasizing that such a decision is made unanimously in Washington.