Russia said the West should have no illusions that Moscow "will simply put up with" the Nordic expansion of the Western military alliance, casting the move as a mistake that would stoke military tension.
certainly that is what vladimir putin was saying at the tail end of last year in particular, beginning this narrative increasingly saying the enlargement of nato on his doorstep or something that put russia s security at risk and was talking about not wanting to see any more expansion whatsoever and saying it was unacceptable if more members are tojoin and it was unacceptable if more members are to join and what we have seen since then is this you shift in public opinion in finland and in sweden, was these two countries set to join. sweden, was these two countries set tojoin. and it is no security threat posed to them. they said they wouldn t not invade and look what happened. ukraine s president zelensky says his country will do its best to host the eurovision song contest
me, you did not see any reason for, quote, dramatic, sudden changes to finland s relationship with nato. here we are, just three months later, you announced you re going to formally apply to join the nato alliance. is this because you re worried russia could attack you as well? not necessarily, but two things took place. first, russia tried to deny any enlargement of nato. and that changed in a way very much our position here. so far we had thought that, okay, we are nonaligned of our own will. but when they said that, that meant that we do not have any will left. that was the first stage, 24th of february when they made a huge attack to ukraine. that s changed quite a lot. well, it showed that they are
since the north atlantic treaty organisation came into being in 1948, 49, organisation came into being in 1948, a9, whenever it organisation came into being in i9a8, a9, whenever it was, and there are long periods where there is very little going on, then you see an acceleration, the last few years was relatively quiet, then growing, then suddenly this optic again. it is getting to the point where they are almost no non nato members on the continent of europe, i think the republic of ireland clearly is not in nato because it maintains neutrality, some of the smaller countries like moldova and georgia but there is a question mark year, isn t there, over the that kind of sense actually russia can perceive itself and even argue to the russian people, look, we are surrounded. certainly that is what vladimir putin was saying at the tail end of last year in particular, beginning this narrative in public, increasingly saying that the enlargement of nato on his doorstep or something that put r
as the consequences of the russian invasion of ukraine ripple across europe, finland says it is ready to join nato. the country has officially announced it will apply for membership, and sweden says it is likely to do the same. the finland president telling us why it s moving away from the traditional stance away from neutrality. russia tried to deny any enlargement of nato, and that changed in a way. very much our position here. and ultimately what we see now, europe developed is more divided. there s not very much room for nonaligned inbetween. so that was also what we are thinking. cnn s senior international correspondent is in eastern ukraine. sam, this is a pretty major