Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced the deployment of additional troops and weapons systems on the country's north-western border with new NATO member Finland as he also warns that Moscow is technically ready for nuclear war.
During an interview on Russian state television, which was broadcast late on Tuesday evening, Putin said that joining NATO was an "absolutely senseless step" that did not correspond to Finland's national interests.
Before this decision in Helsinki, Russian-Finnish relations had been ideal, Putin said.
Finland and Sweden applied for membership of the Western military alliance in the wake of the all-out Russian invasion of Ukraine over two years ago. Both countries are now members.
Putin criticized the move as purely political and said it had contributed to the deterioration of bilateral relations.
Joining NATO did not contribute to improving security. "We had no troops there [along the shared border], now there will be. There were no weapons systems, now there will be," he said.
During the interview, Putin also accused the United States of planning to resume nuclear weapons tests and threatened to take countermeasures.
In such a case, Russia would also consider launching new nuclear weapons tests, the Russian president said.
From a technical point of view, Moscow is prepared to use this weapon of mass destruction, he said. However, according to its own defence doctrine, this would only happen "if the existence of the Russian state and damage to our sovereignty and independence were at stake."
An international nuclear test ban treaty was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1996. The US did not ratify it.
Russia subsequently withdrew its ratification at the end of 2023. However, neither country has conducted nuclear weapons tests since the 1990s.
