The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said it will take "military-technical" steps in response to Sweden's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
On Monday, Sweden cleared the last hurdle in its bid to join NATO when Hungary's parliament voted to ratify the move. In order to join NATO, a country needs unanimous support from alliance members, and Hungary was the last holdout to approve Sweden.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been outspoken about his opposition to the expansion of NATO, and he has cited the possibility of the alliance growing as one of the justifications for his invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. However, it was the Ukraine war that spurred Finland and Sweden to simultaneously submit letters of application to join NATO in May 2022. Finland became a NATO member in April 2023.
"This is not the first time we've seen statements like this from Russian representatives, and it is not something that affects us," the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs' Press Office told Newsweek in a statement when contacted about the message from the Russian Foreign Ministry. "We make our own choices when it comes to security policy."
Putin has yet to publicly comment on Sweden's accession to NATO, but his spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, provided a statement to Newsweek when asked about Hungary voting to ratify Sweden's bid.
"As we have repeatedly said, NATO enlargement in no way contributes to stability and security on the continent," Peskov said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a press briefing that Russia's response to Sweden's NATO membership will be determined by Stockholm's actions.
"On our part, we will closely monitor what Sweden will be doing in the aggressive military bloc, how it will implement its membership in actuality, and, accordingly, proceeding from this, we will formulate our response policy course and retaliatory steps of a military-technical and other nature in order to curb threats to Russia's national security which emerge as a result," Zakharova said, according to the Kremlin-controlled news agency Tass.
Newsweek reached out to the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email on Wednesday for comment.
Zakharova said that Moscow's countermeasures will depend on "what will appear on Swedish soil, how contingents will be deployed, what events will take place and which strategy will be adopted."
Tass reported that Zakharova spoke of Stockholm's long policy of military neutrality, which she said would be ended by joining NATO. She said Sweden's neutrality helped maintain stability in the Baltics and Northern Europe, but by becoming a member of the military bloc, Sweden will "inevitably facilitate this part of the continent morphing from a zone of stability and cooperation into a zone of potential confrontation."
"Sweden's NATO membership will result in Stockholm's substantial loss of national sovereignty," she added.
Update 02/29/24 5:46 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to include comment from the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs' Press Office, which was obtained after the story was originally published.
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