Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned Thursday that Russia would deploy nuclear weapons close to the Baltic States and Scandinavia if Finland or Sweden decide to join NATO. The balance has to be restored,” he said, indicating that Russia would be entitled to deploy nuclear weapons in the region. The former president said Russia would “seriously reinforce its group of ground forces and air defences and deploy significant naval forces in the Gulf of Finland”. On whether the reinforcement would include nuclear weapons, Peskov said, “I can’t say… There will be a whole list of measures and necessary steps. Moscow’s military actions in Ukraine have sparked a dramatic U-turn in public and political opinion in both Finland and Sweden over long-held policies of military non-alignment.

Source: Punch April 14, 2022 15:11 UTC