Russia will take measures in opposition to Sweden following its accession to NATO, Russia’s Overseas Ministry stated Wednesday.
Sweden on Monday cleared the ultimate hurdle to turn out to be the thirty second member of the U.S.-led navy alliance after Hungary, the final holdout in accession talks, ratified the Nordic nation’s membership.
Stockholm dropped years of navy non-alignment when it utilized for NATO membership alongside Finland within the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“We’ll intently monitor what Sweden does within the aggressive navy bloc, the way it will implement its membership in observe,” Russia’s Overseas Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated at a weekly press briefing.
She stated Moscow’s “navy and technical” retaliation would depend upon the forms of NATO weapons and items Sweden deploys, in addition to the forms of drills and methods it adopts as a member of the navy alliance.
“Primarily based on that, we’ll develop our response coverage, in addition to navy and technical steps, to cease the threats to Russia’s nationwide safety,” Zakharova added.
Her assertion echoes Russia’s Embassy in Stockholm, which warned earlier Tuesday that Moscow’s response was contingent on the “circumstances and scale of Sweden’s integration into NATO, together with the doable deployment of NATO items, strike techniques and weapons.”
Final 12 months, Russia’s ambassador in Stockholm stated that NATO’s new members would turn out to be “a official goal for Russian retaliatory measures.”