Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia didn’t have any problems with Finland until the country was “dragged into NATO.”
“What, did we have some kind of disputes with Finland? All disputes, including territorial ones from the mid-20th century, have long been resolved,” said Putin in an interview on Russian state news network Channel One, as cited by Interfax.
“There were no problems. Now there will be. Because we will now be establishing the Leningrad military district and concentrating certain military units there. Why would they need to do that, it’s just nonsense,” stated Putin.
He added that “Russia has no reasons, no interest, neither geopolitical, nor economic, nor military, to fight with NATO countries.” “We don’t have competing territorial claims, we don’t want to spoil relations with them,” he said.
“I think that President Biden doesn’t understand this. This is just a figure of speech to justify their misguided policy toward Russia,” he continued. Putin said that Biden’s statement that Russia could attack NATO if “Putin is not stopped in Ukraine” was “utter nonsense.”
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