Sergei Lavrov warned again that Russia must take military-technical countermeasures on its own side of the border if Finland and Sweden join the military alliance NATO.
16:52•Updated 17:27
MOSCOW Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov commented the president at his annual big press conference Sauli Niinistön New Year’s speech.
Lavrov answered the correspondent of Icelandic Radio Saga Haukur Hauksson’s to the question.
– How would you comment on the quite open statements of Sauli Niinistö, the president of Finland, when he compared the Russian Federation to the brutal Nazi regime, Haukur Hauksson asked.
In his New Year’s speech (you switch to another service) Niinistö did parallel it Vladimir Putin the invasion of Ukraine ordered by the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to the decision to start the winter war in November 1939.
– The leaders of the authoritarian country, Stalin and Putin, did not know how to recognize the essential factor. The fact that in a free country individuals have will and conviction. And that a nation working together is a huge force, Niinistö said in his speech.
Lavrov was not enthusiastic about the comparison.
– Quite a primitive one-on-one call, to be honest, the Russian foreign minister commented in Moscow.
Lavrov characterized Finland as having previously been a model country for friendly relations with Russia. He said he was surprised by the speed with which Finland changed its rhetoric.
– Apparently there was a change of position behind it, or the position was always anti-Russian, but it was well disguised, Lavrov said.
In his answer, Lavrov certainly did not mention anything about Russia’s own actions – the major attack on Ukraine that started in February and the diplomatic pressure that preceded it – having had an impact on the formation of Finland’s position.
Referring to the Icelandic journalist’s original question, Lavrov speculated that Niinistö often thinks about the relationship with fascist Germany.
– I feel that Finns must remember history well and the fact that they were not innocent victims in the process that took place before and after the Second World War.
By this, Lavrov apparently referred at least to the fact that Finland subsequently allied with Nazi Germany in the Continuation War 1941–1944.
Russian President Putin has defended the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, in which the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany agreed on the division of fronts in Europe before the start of World War II.
Lavrov: Russia will draw its conclusions
Lavrov regretted Finland’s change of direction and said that Russia and Finland are neighbors and that will not change.
According to Lavrov, Russia must draw its own conclusions about the possible accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO.
– We are taking similar military-technical actions on our side of the border, Lavrov said.
Russia has already announced on several occasions that it will somehow strengthen its armed forces near the Finnish border if Finland and Sweden join the Western military alliance.
The Russian leadership has not specified what that would mean.
All in all, Lavrov’s three-hour press conference was strongly colored by the confrontation with the West. For the dark state of relations, Lavrov blamed the West exclusively, above all the United States and the military alliance NATO.
At one point, Lavrov even instructed that the journalist of the “unfriendly country” should now be asked questions. It was the turn of the Japanese media that time, although many other journalists from the unfriendly country waved their number tags enthusiastically.