LONDON—Russia said on Thursday that Finland’s bid to join NATO was a hostile move that “definitely” posed a threat to its security.
The Kremlin said it would respond but declined to spell out how, saying this would depend on how close NATO moves military assets towards the 1,300 kilometer (800-mile) Finnish-Russian frontier.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Russia would need to take “retaliatory steps, both of a military-technical and other nature, in order to stop threats to its national security arising”.
“Helsinki must be aware of the responsibility and consequences of such a move,” it said.
The Finnish move, which Sweden is expected to replicate, confronts President Vladimir Putin with the very outcome he said his war in Ukraine was designed to prevent—a further expansion of NATO to Russia’s borders.
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