Finland joined the NATO military alliance Tuesday, dealing a major blow to Russia with a historic realignment of the continent triggered by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
The Nordic country's membership doubles Russia's border with the world's biggest security alliance and represents a major change in Europe's security landscape: The nation adopted neutrality after its defeat by the Soviets in World War II. But its leaders signaled they wanted to join the alliance just months after Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine sent a shiver of fear through Moscow's neighbors.
Alarmed by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine last year, Finland, which shares a 1,340 kilometer border with Russia, applied to join in May, setting aside years of military non-alignment to seek protection under the organization's security umbrella. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, Tuesday that Finland's membership reflects the alliance's anti-Russian course and warned that Moscow will respond depending on what weapons NATO allies place there.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg earlier said that no more troops would be sent to Finland unless it asked for help. But Stoltenberg refused to rule out the possibility of holding more military exercises there and said that NATO would not allow Russia's demands to dictate the organization's decisions.