The accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO creates additional risks in the security sphere for Poland and Baltic countries which support Kyiv since the Ukrainian crisis may spread there as a result of growing tensions. This opinion was expressed on Friday by political scientist Lu Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
According to the Global Times newspaper, he said that Finnish and Swedish accession was "formality over content," as the two countries already have deep cooperation with NATO. However, the expert specified, the official accession of these two countries to the alliance is fraught with "a spillover beyond Ukraine to possibly Poland, a key transit for NATO weapons."
The expert thinks that similar risks exist for the Baltic States, particularly for Lithuania, which has been actively criticizing Russia lately. According to the political scientist, Russia may use "the Ukraine crisis as leverage to counter NATO."
That said, he thinks that "the chance of Russian direct confrontation with the Nordic countries is relatively low." The expert points out that "harsh remarks" on the part of the authorities in the Baltic are dangerous since Moscow may take "‘preemptive’ countermeasures based on the possibility of future attacks conduced from the current animosity."
