If Finland, Sweden join NATO: What to make of Russias nuclear threat?

Sweden and Finland’s plan to join NATO (North
Atlantic Treaty Organization) has made Russia sit up. At war with Ukraine,
Russia has threatened to deploy nuclear weapons on the Baltic if Sweden and Finland
go ahead with the plan. However, Arvydas Anusauskaus, the Lithuanian defence
minister, says Russia already has nuclear weapons on the Baltic.

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Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of
Russia, said on Thursday that Moscow will bolster all its forces in the region
if the two Nordic nations join the US-led military alliance. Medvedev’s threat
is in line with Russian nuclear posturing in course of the Ukraine war. The
further threat has been received by Western forces, especially the United
States, with some scepticism.

The US view

“We’re obviously very concerned,” said William
Burns, director of the CIA. “Given the potential desperation of President Putin
and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they’ve faced so far
militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort
to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons.”

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However, Burns also said that the US has seen a
certain degree of rhetorical posturing on behalf of Moscow, in terms of nuclear
deployments.

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“While we’ve seen some rhetorical posturing on
the part of the Kremlin, moving to higher nuclear alert levels, so far we haven’t
seen a lot of practical evidence of the kind of deployments or military
dispositions that would reinforce that concern,” Burns added.

Why Finland and Sweden want to join NATO?

Finland and Sweden have been staunchly nonaligned
for years. The decision to go the other way and join NATO is due to Russia’s
war efforts in Ukraine. Leaders of the two Nordic nations say that Russian
onslaught on Ukraine has altered Europe’s “whole security landscape.”

Perspective Moscow

Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president,
said that if Finland and Sweden were actually to join NATO, Russia would have
to bolster its military presence in the region. “Naturally, we will have to
reinforce these borders” by bolstering ground, air and naval defences in the
region.