Putin warns Finland joining Nato would be ‘mistake’

Kremlin shuts electricity supplies to Helsinki while Russian politician makes threats of nuclear response

VLADIMIR PUTIN yesterday warned Finland it was making a “mistake” joining Nato, saying relations would be “negatively affected” if Helsinki ended decades of military neutrality. The Russian president made the thinly veiled threat after Sauli Niinistö, the president of Finland, spoke to him by phone to confirm that Helsinki would apply to join the alliance in the next few days.

Mr Putin has previously demanded that Finland and Sweden never join Nato and invaded Ukraine in order to stop it from doing the same, despite the low likelihood of it being granted membership.

Russia’s foreign ministry said earlier this week that it would be forced to take “retaliatory steps”, including military action, if Finland and Sweden went ahead with their Nato applications.

Alexander Grushko, the deputy foreign minister, said that Moscow would take “adequate precautionary measures” if Nato deployed nuclear forces closer to Russia’s border.

Some repercussions are already emerging. The Russian energy supplier yesterday shut off electricity supplies to Finland and there are concerns that gas flows could also be affected. Russia provides a tenth of Finland’s electricity.

One Russian lawmaker went as far as threatening Finland with a nuclear attack, saying Moscow’s “absolutely legitimate goal” would be “to question the very existence of this state”.

“They are going to become a target for the Russian military,” Alexei Zhuravlyov, a pro-Kremlin politician, told Ura. ru. He threatened to use Russia’s Sarmat hypersonic nuclear missile against Britain and northern Europe in a warning shot aimed across Finland’s bows.

Mr Putin was less bombastic in his call with Mr Niinistö yesterday, which was initiated by Finland. However, he warned Helsinki the abandonment of “its traditional policy of military neutrality would be a mistake since there are no threats to Finland’s security”.

However, Mr Niinistö said Russian threats over joining Nato and Mr Putin’s “massive invasion” of Ukraine had “fundamentally” altered Finland’s “security environment”.

Finland shares an 830 mile border with Russia. It has been neutral since the Second World War, while Sweden has been non-aligned for more than 200 years. Both countries signed mutual defence pacts with the UK last week, which could mean British troops being sent to defend them if Russia was to attack. Both are attending a Nato foreign ministers meeting in Berlin today.

However, any country joining Nato must have the unanimous support of existing members and Turkey has said it was not yet sure if it would back Finland and Sweden’s bids. Yesterday Ankara said negotiations were needed with the countries and a clampdown on what it sees as pro-Kurdish terrorist activities.