NATO General Mocks Russia's Nuclear Move: 'Absurd'

Russia's announcement it had moved deploy nuclear-capable missile systems to its frontier with Finland met with a dismissive response from a general in the new NATO member.

Kremlin-friendly newspaper Izvestia reported last week that the Russian defense ministry had formed a separate missile brigade in the Russian republic of Karelia with Iskander-M systems, which can launch conventional and nuclear missiles.

Russia has called Finland's decision to join NATO after decades of neutrality provocative, and that was followed by Sweden's accession last month. The Iskanders are seen as central to the presence in Karelia of Russia's newly formed Leningrad Military District (LMD) which was created in response to Helsinki joining NATO.

But the prospect of Iskanders by the border got short shrift from retired Major General Harri Ohra-aho, a former director of the Finnish military intelligence agency.

"If this comes true, it won't change anything," he wrote on X. "In any case, one should defend against Iskander missiles," he said, referring to how such missiles already are deployed south of St. Petersburg.

"Of course, it's none of my business, but operationally it seems absurd to bring missile systems with such a long range closer to our border, they make easy targets for us," he added, according to a translation.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment.

Sari Arho Havrén, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank and a visiting researcher in the University of Helsinki, said that the reaction in Finland to Russia's deployment of Iskanders to Karelia has been "composed."

"Harri Ohra-aho is right—they don't really change anything. Russia could strike Finland similarly before," she told Newsweek. "It is questionable when Russia will have extra Iskanders to deploy them close to the Finnish border."

She said Russia's announcement did not come as any particular surprise to Finland following the announcement of the creation of the LMD.

"This announcement is equally intended as an internal message and reaction to Finland's NATO membership and in response to NATO's enlargement close to Russia," she added.

The 9K720 Iskander-M, which has the NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone, is a mobile short-range ballistic missile system that can carry nuclear warheads weighing up to 1,500 pounds. Its missiles can reach an altitude of more than 30 miles and travel at up to seven times the speed of sound (Mach 7).

The Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA) said it was Moscow's main weapon when threatening Europe. In 2017, during exercise Zapad, a Iskander-M missile vehicle appeared in the Pechenga valley, less than 10 miles from the border with Norway.

RUSI said in August 2022 that they gave Russia "significant capability" and they had been used in tactical-operation strikes in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Finland shares a border of more than 830 miles with Russia, which has been closed by Helsinki since Russia's FSB directed migrants to enter Finland in what Finnish authorities dubbed a hybrid operation.

Separately, in light of Moscow's cyberattacks against Ukraine and its digital infrastructure, Wednesday saw the start of NATO's largest cyber defense exercise, Locked Shields in Tallinn, Estonia.

President Joe Biden, the leaders of other NATO countries and analysts have warned that following his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin could look to attack countries in the alliance, a notion that the Russian president has rejected.

Update 04/25/24, 6:45 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Sari Arho Havrén.