MOSCOW, July 17 Finland and Sweden made a mistake when decided to join NATO, retired US Army colonel and former State Department official Anne Wright said in an interview with the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti.
“I think you made a mistake. Finland and Sweden could have remained independent and neutral countries. This is important, so that there are neutral states in the world in which other countries and organizations could conduct dialogue in the event of potential conflicts,” Wright said.
According to her, NATO is actively involved in wars and deliberately incites them. Wright cited the alliance's eastward expansion and exercises near Russia's eastern border as one of the ways to «incite war.»
«NATO seems to believe that peace can only be achieved through war. I say that peace is born through diplomacy and preventing deaths,” she concluded.
Finland joined the North Atlantic Alliance on April 4, 2023, and Sweden on March 7 this year. As President Vladimir Putin pointed out in an interview with Dmitry Kiselev, the entry of both countries into NATO was a meaningless step from the point of view of ensuring their own national interests. The head of state emphasized that Russian troops and weapons systems would appear near the borders of Finland after joining the alliance.