Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday that Russia would redeploy troops at its border with Finland.
“We generally had ideal relations with Finland. Simply perfect,” said Putin. “We did not have a single claim against each other, especially territorial, not to mention other areas. We didn’t even have troops; we removed all the troops from there, from the Russian-Finnish border,” he noted. “However, it is up to them to decide. That’s what they decided. But we didn’t have troops there, now we will.”
In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Putin made clear that Russia’s present tensions with the West — and its military action in Ukraine — came about as a result of NATO expansion. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the West made explicit promises not to expand the organization. However, NATO has continuously expanded its membership, which now includes nations — like Finland — that border Russia.
Moscow has recently warned on multiple occasions that escalating Western interference in Ukraine could spark a full-scale war in Europe and even nuclear retaliation. Despite these warnings, many Western countries have increased their bellicose posturing towards Russia, risking world peace itself.
