Russia to have more official adversaries after Sweden, Finland join NATO

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Russia now has more to say regarding news of Finland and Sweden applying to join NATO, as Russia's Security Council Deputy Chairman, and former President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, said on Thursday that Moscow will have more officially registered adversaries once the two countries join NATO.

"Sweden and Finland are discussing the possibility of joining NATO with savage seriousness. The alliance itself is ready to accept them ... in the shortest possible time and with minimal bureaucratic procedures," Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel. 

The Russian official further said that Moscow will have to strengthen ground forces and air defenses, and deploy "significant naval forces in the Gulf of Finland" if Finland and Sweden join the alliance.

Finland, alongside its neighbor to the West, Sweden, is expected to request NATO membership in the coming months - before summer. Their accession, if it were to happen, would redefine European security and would be met with opposition from Russia, which has been very vocal about its opposition to NATO's expansion.

"We will have very careful discussions, but we will also not take any more time than we have to in this process because the situation is, of course, very severe," Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin told reporters in a nod to a decision being made before summer.

Sweden, on the other hand, still has not fully made up its mind with regards to joining the alliance, for Stockholm has opposed NATO altogether, and is non-aligned militarily, just like Finland. 

Russia has criticized accusations that it posed a threat to the two countries discussing a possible NATO membership in light of regional tensions.

"These claims [over an alleged Russian threat] are unintelligent. They are not based on facts. They are in the realm of propaganda and provocations. They go against the national interests of those countries," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Wednesday in response to statements from Helsinki and Stockholm about the matter.

Russia had for months before the war in Ukraine been warning of the threat posed against it by NATO's attempts to expand eastward, which happened simultaneously with an increase in NATO military activity along Russia's borders, and batches of lethal weapons being sent to Ukraine, prompting Russia to request security guarantees from the West. Washington failed to provide the guarantees.