‘All for one, one for all’: Russia ‘watching closely’ as Finland joins Nato

Nato hoisted Finland’s flag at its Brussels headquarters on Tuesday to the sound of its national anthem, marking the Scandinavian state’s accession to the military alliance in record time after the invasion of Ukraine spurred a final break with its historically neutral security policy.

Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said that threats of consequences by the regime of Russian president Vladimir Putin if Nato were to admit any more members had been a motivation for Finland to join.

“That was one of the reasons why the discussion in Finland rose. We do not want that others say what we should do, and what we can’t do,” Mr Niinistö told reporters. “Russians in a way tried to create a sphere around them, and well, we are not a sphere.”

Finland becomes the alliance’s 31st member state, and thus doubles the length of its land border with Russia.

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In the Kremlin’s daily press briefing to journalists, spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that Moscow considered Nato expansion to be an “encroachment” on Russian security and interests, and described Finland’s accession as “another aggravation of the situation”.

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“We will be watching closely what is going on in Finland, how the Nato alliance will use Finnish territory in terms of deploying weapons, systems and infrastructure there, which will be close to our borders and therefore threaten us,” Peskov told journalists. “Depending on this, measures will be taken.”

Several leaders remarked to press that Russia had inadvertently caused what it did not want. Finland joining was “a direct result of Vladimir Putin’s aggression, and his illegal invasion of Ukraine,” Britain’s foreign secretary James Cleverly said.

As representatives of Nato’s member states gathered to ceremonially raise the Finnish flag outside its headquarters, protesters nearby could be heard demanding “fighter jets for Ukraine”.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba had told journalists on arrival that while Kyiv was grateful for the “practical support” it received from the alliance, it would continue to push for outright membership.

The alliance refused to grant Kyiv fast-track membership when it applied in 2008, while saying it could join at an undefined point in the future.

Finland’s accession was formalised with the exchange of paperwork at the Brussels Nato headquarters on Tuesday, after all member states ratified its application since it applied last May.

Helsinki had hoped to be joining with close neighbour Sweden, but that country will have to wait longer after Turkey delayed granting its approval, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan demanding concessions on Stockholm’s treatment of Kurdish activists he describes as “terrorists”.

Hungary’s government also delayed ratification, citing “grievances” related to Sweden’s criticism of prime minister Viktor Orban.

Nato’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, said that “nothing should hinder or be an obstacle” to Sweden joining as soon as possible, and described its membership as “personally important to me”.

In contrast to their Nordic neighbours Norway and Denmark, Finland and Sweden declined to join Nato when it was founded 74 years ago on Tuesday as a collective security bulwark against the Soviet Union.

Their policies of neutrality, which evolved to become non-alignment when the Soviet Union collapsed and both joined the European Union, came to a definitive end when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused a surge in public support for joining the alliance.

Mr Stoltenberg said that Nato was stronger with Finland within it, noting that it brought with it “substantial” and “highly capable” military forces.

“Most importantly, what happens from today on is that Finland will be covered by Nato’s ironclad security guarantees,” he told reporters. “Our Article Five, that says that an attack on one ally will be an attack on all. All for one, one for all.”

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