Finland and Sweden joining NATO ‘will be a bad day for Putin,’ says intelligence chief
Louise Jones, the head of intelligence at McKenzie Intelligence Services, has provided an insight on what NATO could look like if Finland and Sweden join.
Finland, which typically takes a neutral stance, has today announced it will move forward with a bid to join the military alliance – much to the annoyance of Russia.
Ms Jones said: “To understand how big a move this is, we have to really look at the history of NATO. It was formed after World War Two, predominantly focused on the countries of Germany, France, the UK and of course the US – very much Western Europe.
“The main aim was to counter the Soviet Union.”
However, Ms Jones said that upon the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, “the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, they applied to NATO membership pretty much straight away.
“Countries like Finland and Sweden, which had retained quite a lot of neutrality throughout the Cold War, they decided to carry on pursuing those policies.”
She added that the two countries joining will be a “bad day for President [Vladimir] Putin.”
“This isn’t what he wanted at all, the neutrality of Finland and Sweden really suited him, and then he could focus in on further to the south.
“But really there’s very little he can do now – the horse has well and truly bolted.”
You can watch more of Ms Jones’ analysis in the clip below…
