Official: Russia Closely Watching NATO Configuration on Borders
MOSCOW (Dispatches) - Russia is closely watching anything that can affect NATO’s configuration on its borders, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, in response to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visiting Sweden and Finland on Wednesday.
Both Sweden and Finland are expected to make decisions this month on whether to apply to join the Western military alliance.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he had agreed new deals with Sweden and Finland to bolster European security, pledging to support both countries’ armed forces should they come under attack.
The agreements, alleged by Britain as “a step-change in defense and security cooperation”, will go some way to assuage fears in Finland and Sweden.
“What we are saying, emphatically, is that in the event of a disaster or the event of an attack upon Sweden, then the UK would come to the assistance of Sweden with whatever Sweden requested,” Johnson said after meeting Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.
Johnson would not say whether the UK would send troops to Sweden in the event of an attack.
Russia Lashes Out at U.S.
Aid to Ukraine
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev accused the United States on Wednesday of waging a “proxy war” against Russia after the House of Representatives approved a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine, and said the U.S. economy would suffer.
Writing on the messenger app Telegram, Medvedev said that the bill approved by the House on Tuesday was a bid “to deal a serious defeat to our country and limit its economic development and political influence in the world.”
Medvedev said: “It won’t work. The printing press by which America is constantly increasing its already inflated government debt will break faster.”
Medvedev, who has served as deputy chairman of Russia’s security council since resigning as prime minister in January 2020, blamed “insane” prices for U.S. fuel and groceries on what he called America’s “Russophobic authorities”.
Also writing on Telegram, Russia’s State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin accused Washington of using the aid package to “indebt” Ukraine and of appropriating the country’s grain reserves in lieu of payment.
And also, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that he regrets that the UN has missed the opportunity to reach a political solution on the Ukraine crisis.
“To my great regret, the secretariat of this organization, including its secretary-general, missed the opportunity to achieve a political settlement when for seven long years they did not react in any way to the open, outright sabotage by the Kiev regime of Security Council Resolution 2202, which approved the Minsk Agreements on the settlement in Eastern Ukraine,” Lavrov stated, RIA Novosti reported.
The top Russian diplomat made his statement during a joint press conference with his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Albusaidi in Muscat.
Lavrov stressed that the UN should call on the Kiev authorities to stop preventing the evacuation of civilians from the zone of the military operation in Ukraine.
“Taking into account the interest shown by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, we advised him first of all to turn his appeals to the Kiev authorities, to demand that they stop preventing civilians from leaving the areas of the military operation,” Lavrov continued.
He added that a UN representative “is currently on the ground” and is “trying to help in solving the issues we have raised”.