Russia will deploy troops and weapons systems on the Finnish border following Finland’s decision to join NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Russian propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov Wednesday.
Before that, Putin argued, Russia and Finland had had an “ideal relationship”, so Moscow felt no need to deploy troops on that section of its border.
Russia began equipping military bases near the Finnish border in August, Finnish TV channel Yle previously reported. Large hangars for military equipment have been built at the Alakurtti Air Base in the Murmansk region, in the Russian Arctic, and at a military depot in Petrozavodsk, in northwestern Russia, which can be seen in satellite images.
For now, most of that equipment has been sent to the war in Ukraine, Yle reported. Analysts say the hangars were built to re-supply and deliver equipment to the front in Ukraine, while Finnish Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen told Yle in September that the equipment “posed no threat” to Finland’s security.