Russian president Vladimir Putin has threatened to “go nuclear” in the Baltic Sea region if Sweden and Finland join NATO, Sky News reports.
Putin’s message was delivered by Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, via a lengthy Telegram post on Thursday, vowing that Moscow would respond “without emotion, and with a cool head,” while claiming that he the additional two countries joining NATO would mean Moscow “officially has more opponents.”
“Russia will seriously strengthen the grouping of ground forces and air defense, and deploy significant naval forces in the waters of the Gulf of Finland,” Medvedev said. “There can be no more talk of any nuclear-free status for the Baltic, the balance must be restored,” he wrote noted The Daily Beast.
In response to the veiled threat, Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas pointed out that it was “quite strange” Russia was threatening a nuclear buildup when it already has nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad, on the Baltic Sea.
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