NATO headquarters building. File photoMOSCOW, June 3The entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO poses a lesser threat to Russia than membership in the alliance of Ukraine, with which Russia has a territorial dispute, said Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev.According to him, Russia does not like any expansion of NATO, because after leaving the forefront of the Warsaw Pact, the balance in the world collapsed. «But if we talk about the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO, then, in any case, in the configuration that has been announced, this poses a lesser threat to our country than Ukraine's entry there. And here the reason is completely understandable,» he added. Medvedev noted that the issue is the absence of territorial claims, but in relation to Ukraine the situation is different. «And if Ukraine falls into a bloc that is aggressively opposed to us, which also has a nuclear potential, then this, of course, can provoke the most notorious, as we say, frostbitten, representatives of the Ukrainian establishment, the elite, and just nationalists, to carry out some sort of attack on Crimea. And this will lead to a direct conflict between NATO and the Russian Federation,” he said.
