NATO in Finland is preparing provocations for a conflict with Russia — Ambassador

The North Atlantic Alliance is working out provocative scenarios of an armed conflict with Russia on the territory of Finland. This was stated by Russian Ambassador to Helsinki Pavel Kuznetsov.

"The scale and number of military exercises in Finland with the participation of large formations of NATO countries and with the development of various provocative scenarios of an armed conflict with Russia is gaining momentum," the diplomat said in an interview with TASS.

He noted that "Finnish Lapland — the birthplace of Santa Claus - is being turned into a training ground for NATO units to conduct combat operations in the northern latitudes," which, according to him, "is already beginning to raise legitimate questions among residents of the region."

Finland officially joined NATO in April 2023. In this regard, the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that this country has irrevocably lost the status of an "honest broker" and cannot be an intermediary in any international processes. In addition, Moscow stated that the entire complex of "once very successful multifaceted bilateral cooperation" was brought down by the fault of the Finnish authorities, and anti-Russian ideological charge permeated all layers of Finnish society.