NATO will be coming at Russia from the North. #Sweden today | Ukrainian Policy Matters

NATO will be coming at Russia from the North.

#Sweden today declared it will be applying for the Organization’s membership end of June. #Finland is conducting its security review, which will be submitted to Parliament for decision making one of these days. The odds are that both Nordic countries may join the Alliance as early as before the end of the year.

The question remains whether this will contribute to strengthening their security though.

The emotions are understandable. With regard to how the situation in Ukraine is being reported by the European media, anyone would be afraid to stay face to face with ‘barbarians’. However, cooling their heads should be advised to those who call on Stockholm and Helsinki to enter NATO.

Security guarantees under Article 5 of the Washington treaty is a good thing of course, but there’s no need for them, if these countries remain neutral.

Indeed their neutrality has long been more figurative than factual. Both have not only been parts to ‘Partnership for peace’ program, but also cooperated with NATO within ISAF, exchange of intelligence data, etc.

Yet, formal accession to the Organization will lead to its status with #Russia’s security planning being formally revised.

Main threats of course will come from military buildup in Finland on the border within 180 km from St.Petersburg. Security of North-West of Russia and accessibility of Kaliningrad will thus be dramatically deteriorating. Let alone placing nuclear or anti-missile infrastructure in these countries, which will infringe strategic balance.

No declarations about purely defensive logic of membership will be believed. Thus, these countries will automatically appear high on the list of priority threats. This is surely not what the people of these countries are looking for.

@Russian_Monitor