NATO ‘Troops’ at Russia Border ‘Excessive’: Kremlin

The Kremlin has decried reports that Poland plans to send “troops” to Finland’s border with Russia, saying on Wednesday that such a move would be “excessive.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to an earlier post by the head of Poland’s National Security Bureau, Jacek Siewiera, which said Warsaw would send “a team of military advisers” to Finland in response to “an official request for allied support in the face of a hybrid attack on the Finnish border.”

The team “will provide on-site knowledge on border security, also in operational terms,” said Siewiera in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced last week that the country would close its border crossing points with Russia to curb the flow of asylum seekers. The Finnish Border Guard said that about 3,000 people had been crossing into the country per day.

Helsinki has accused Moscow, with which it shares an 830-mile border, of guiding refugees and migrants towards its territory in retaliation for its cooperation with the United States. Russia has denied the claims.

Newsweek has contacted Finland’s foreign ministry via email for comment.

The involvement of European military personnel on the border between Russia and Finland is an excessive measure to ensure security, Peskov told reporters at a press briefing.

Peskov said there is “no conflict as such” between the two nations.

“Finland is not threatened by anyone or anything. In this case, these are excessive measures to ensure border security. There is no threat and in reality there is no tension,” he said.

The Kremlin spokesman warned that the measure could stoke tensions.

“The Finns must be clearly aware that this will pose a threat to us – an increase in the concentration of military units on our borders,” Peskov said. “This is an absolutely unprovoked and unjustified concentration of armed units on the Russian border.”

Orpo said Tuesday that despite the border closures, “intelligence information from different sources tells us that there still are people on the move.”

“If this continues, more measures will be announced in the near future,” he told a press conference, without elaborating.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that the defense alliance hadn’t received requests to become involved.

“In recent weeks, Moscow has been facilitating the arrival of migrants at Finland’s border with Russia, prompting the closure of border crossing points, using migration as a tool to put pressure on a neighbour and a NATO ally,” Stoltenberg told a press conference in Brussels.

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