Putin lets Finland know that trading lack of bias for Nato is a mix-up

The two nations said their leaders talked by telephone two days after Finland announced its expectation to join the Western union

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Finnish partner Sauli Niinisto on Saturday that dumping nonpartisanship and joining Nato would be a slip-up that could harm relations between their two nations, the Kremlin said.

The two nations said their leaders talked by telephone two days after Finland pronounced its expectation to join the Western coalition. Moscow has portrayed that as a security danger that will expect it to answer, yet has not determined how.

Niinisto’s office said he told Putin “how essentially the Russian requests in late 2021 targeting keeping nations from joining Nato and Russia’s monstrous attack of Ukraine in February 2022 have changed the security climate of Finland.”

He said Finland needed to deal with relations with its Russian neighbor in a “right and expert way.”

The Kremlin said: “Vladimir Putin focused on that forsaking the customary strategy of military impartiality would be a misstep, since there are no dangers to Finland’s security. Such an adjustment of the country’s international strategy might adversely affect Russian-Finnish relations.”
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Moscow portrayed the call as a “candid trade of perspectives,” ordinarily a strategic code word for a troublesome discussion.

Niinisto said: “The discussion was immediate and clear and it was led without aggravations. It was thought of as critical to Avoid strains.”

Finland’s participation bid is supposed to be trailed by a comparable move from Sweden, defying Putin with precisely what he said he needed to stay away from when he sent off his intrusion of Ukraine on February 24: a further extension of Nato to Russia’s boundaries.