Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Artyom Zhoga, father of commander of the Sparta Battalion pro-Russian military unit Vladimir Zhoga who was killed in a conflict in Ukraine, following the parade on Victory Day, which marks the 77th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Moscow, Russia May 9, 2022. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto on Saturday that ditching neutrality and joining Nato would be a mistake that could damage relations between their two countries, the Kremlin said.
The two countries said their presidents spoke by phone two days after Finland declared its intention to join the Western alliance. Moscow has described that as a security threat that will require it to respond, but has not specified how.
Niinisto鈥檚 office said he told Putin 鈥渉ow fundamentally the Russian demands in late 2021 aiming at preventing countries from joining Nato and Russia鈥檚 massive invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 have altered the security environment of Finland鈥�.
He said Finland wanted to handle relations with its Russian neighbour in a 鈥渃orrect and professional manner鈥�.
The Kremlin said: 鈥淰ladimir Putin stressed that abandoning the traditional policy of military neutrality would be a mistake, since there are no threats to Finland鈥檚 security. Such a change in the country鈥檚 foreign policy may have a negative impact on Russian-Finnish relations.鈥�
Moscow described the call as a 鈥渇rank exchange of views鈥�, normally a diplomatic euphemism for a difficult conversation.
Niinisto said: 鈥淭he conversation was direct and straightforward and it was conducted without aggravations. Avoiding tensions was considered important.鈥�
Finland鈥檚 membership bid is expected to be followed by a similar move from Sweden, confronting Putin with exactly what he said he wanted to avoid when he launched his invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24: a further expansion of Nato to Russia鈥檚 borders.
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