Russia says NATO expansion hasn’t made Europe safer place

“Ukraine started becoming the bridgehead for anti-Russian activity,” he told Russian media outlet RBC TV.

“NATO, and thus the US, started taking steps towards Ukraine, towards our borders. And that became a question of our security.”

Responding to a comment by the interviewer regarding NATO’s recent expansion, with Finland and Sweden joining the bloc after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, Peskov noted that Russia’s relationship with both countries is fundamentally different than with Ukraine.

Kiev saw Crimea as a territorial issue with Moscow, he said, after the peninsula rejoined Russia in 2014 following a referendum. However, “We have no territorial questions or problems with Finland and Sweden, we have no points of tension or reasons for confrontation,” Peskov added.

The two Northern European states applied for NATO membership soon after the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Finland joined the bloc in April 2023, and Sweden became a member in March of this year.

NATO’s military infrastructure will sooner or later make its way onto their territories, “despite them currently being quite careful about this, as they understand this would lead to consequences for their own security”, the spokesman stated.