Konstantin Kosachev. Archival photoMOSCOW, May 23.Vice Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev believes that the pause for Sweden and Finland to join NATO is temporary, Turkey is simply playing its cards.»Turkey is not opposed to the membership of Sweden and Finland in NATO, they never talked about it,» Kosachev said on Channel One. In his opinion, Ankara is playing its card in this story and «I suspect that they will be able to play it back,» the politician added. According to him, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan «is a rather skillful and cynical negotiator, so it seems to me that the current pause in formalizing the membership of Finland and Sweden in NATO is temporary.» .jpg» />Sweden and Finland didn't calculate Turkey's reaction, Russia's envoy said Earlier, the Financial Times wrote that Turkey blocked the start of the process of considering an application for Finland and Sweden to join NATO. Erdogan said that Ankara cannot say «yes» to the membership of Finland and Sweden in NATO, because it cannot believe their assurances about relations with representatives of the Kurdistan Workers' Party banned in Turkey. If Turkey agrees, NATO, according to Erdogan, «will not be a security organization, but will become a place where there will be many representatives of terrorists.» Countries cannot be accepted into an alliance without the unanimous approval of all its members.
An unexpected protest. Who in NATO was not happy with the Finns and Swedes
