Finland joins NATO, dealing blow to Russia for Ukraine war

BRUSSELS (AP) — Finland joined the NATO military alliance Tuesday, dealing a major blow to Russia with a historic realignment of the continent triggered by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Nordic country’s membership doubles Russia’s border with the world’s biggest security alliance and represents a major change in Europe’s security landscape: The nation adopted neutrality after its defeat by the Soviets in World War II. But its leaders signaled they wanted to join the alliance just months after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sent a shiver of fear through Moscow’s neighbors.

The move is a strategic and political blow to Putin, who has long complained about NATO’s expansion toward Russia and partly used that as a justification for the invasion.

Russia warned that it would be forced to take “retaliatory measures” to address what it called security threats created by Finland’s membership. It had also warned it would bolster forces near Finland if NATO sends any additional troops or equipment to what is its 31st member country.

The alliance says it poses no threat to Moscow.

Neighboring Sweden, which has avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, has also applied. But objections from NATO members Turkey and Hungary have delayed the process.

Alarmed by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Finland, which shares a 1,340 kilometer (832 mile) border with Russia, applied to join in May, setting aside years of military non-alignment to seek protection under the organization’s security umbrella.

“I’m tempted to say this is maybe the one thing that we can thank Mr. Putin for because he once again here precipitated something he claims to want to prevent by Russia’s aggression, causing many countries to believe that they have to do more to look out for their own defense and to make sure that they can deter possible Russian aggression going forward,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said just before accepting the documents that made Finland’s membership official.

The U.S. State Department is the repository of NATO texts concerning membership.

Earlier, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the country “will be forced to take military-technical and other retaliatory measures to counter the threats to our national security arising from Finland’s accession to NATO.”

It said Finland’s move marks “a fundamental change in the situation in Northern Europe, which had previously been one of the most stable regions in the world.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, said Tuesday that Finland’s membership reflects the alliance’s anti-Russian course and warned that Moscow will respond depending on what weapons NATO allies place there.

But Peskov also sought to play down the impact, noting that Russia has no territorial disputes with Finland.

It’s not clear what additional military resources Russia could send to the Finnish border. Moscow has deployed the bulk of its most capable military units to Ukraine.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg earlier said that no more troops would be sent to Finland unless it asked for help.

“There will be no NATO troops in Finland without the consent of Finland,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels a few hours before the country joins.

The country is now protected by what Stoltenberg called NATO’s “iron-clad security guarantee,” under which all member countries vow to come to the defense of any ally that comes under attack.

But Stoltenberg refused to rule out the possibility of holding more military exercises there and said that NATO would not allow Russia’s demands to dictate the organization’s decisions.

“We are constantly assessing our posture, our presence. We have more exercises, we have more presence, also in the Nordic area,” he said.

Meanwhile, Finland’s Parliament said that its website was hit with a so-called denial-of-service attack, which made the site hard to use, with many pages not loading and some functions not available.

A pro-Russian hacker group known as NoName057 (16) claimed responsibility, saying the attack was retaliation for Finland joining NATO.

The claim could not be immediately verified.

The hacker group, which has reportedly acted on Moscow’s orders, has taken party in a slew of cyberattacks on the U.S. and its allies in the past. Finnish public broadcaster YLE said the same group hit the Parliament’s site last year.

Finland’s entry, to be marked with a flag-raising ceremony at NATO headquarters, falls on the organization’s very own birthday, the 74th anniversary of the signing of its founding Washington Treaty on April 4, 1949. It also coincides with a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers.

Finland’s president, foreign and defense ministers will take part in the ceremony.

Turkey became the last NATO member country to ratify Finland’s membership protocol on Thursday. It will hand over the document officially enshrining that decision to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken before the ceremony.

Finland’s membership becomes official when its own foreign minister hands over documents completing its accession process to Blinken. The U.S. State Department is the repository of NATO texts concerning membership.

布鲁塞尔（美联社）——芬兰周二加入北约军事联盟，对俄罗斯造成了重大打击，此次加入标志着欧洲大陆历史性的重新格局调整，而这一调整是由莫斯科入侵乌克兰引发的。

这个北欧国家的加入使俄罗斯与世界最大安全联盟的边界线扩大了一倍，也标志着欧洲安全格局的重大变化：该国在二战被苏联击败后奉行中立。但就在俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京入侵乌克兰几个月后，该国领导人就表示希望加入该联盟，此举令莫斯科的邻国感到恐惧。

此举对普京来说是一次战略和政治上的打击，普京长期以来一直抱怨北约向俄罗斯扩张，并部分以此作为入侵的理由。

俄罗斯警告称，芬兰加入北约会造成安全威胁，俄罗斯将被迫采取“报复措施”。俄罗斯还警告说，如果北约向芬兰（北约第31个成员国）增派部队或装备，俄罗斯将加强在芬兰附近的兵力部署。

该联盟声称对莫斯科不构成威胁。

邻国瑞典两百多年来一直避免加入军事联盟，也提出了申请。但北约成员国土耳其和匈牙利的反对意见延缓了这一进程。

去年莫斯科入侵乌克兰后，芬兰感到震惊，该国与俄罗斯接壤，边界线长达 1340 公里（832 英里）。芬兰于 5 月申请加入该组织，放弃了多年来的军事不结盟政策，寻求在该组织的安全保护伞下获得庇护。

“我真想说，这或许是我们唯一应该感谢普京先生的事情，因为他再次通过俄罗斯的侵略行为，促成了他声称想要阻止的事情，导致许多国家相信，他们必须采取更多措施来保护自己的安全，并确保他们能够阻止俄罗斯未来可能的侵略行为。”美国国务卿安东尼·布林肯在接受芬兰正式加入欧盟的文件之前说道。

美国国务院是北约成员国相关文件的保管机构。

此前，俄罗斯外交部表示，该国“将被迫采取军事技术和其他报复措施，以应对芬兰加入北约对我国国家安全构成的威胁”。

声明称，芬兰的这一举动标志着“北欧局势的根本性变化，北欧此前一直是世界上最稳定的地区之一”。

与此同时，克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫周二表示，芬兰的加入反映了北约的反俄路线，并警告说，莫斯科将根据北​​约盟国在芬兰部署何种武器做出回应。

但佩斯科夫也试图淡化此事的影响，指出俄罗斯与芬兰之间没有领土争端。

目前尚不清楚俄罗斯还能向芬兰边境增派多少军事力量。莫斯科已将其大部分精锐部队部署到乌克兰。

北约秘书长延斯·斯托尔滕贝格此前表示，除非芬兰请求援助，否则不会再向芬兰派遣军队。

“未经芬兰同意，北约部队不会进驻芬兰，”北约秘书长延斯·斯托尔滕贝格在芬兰加入北约前几个小时在布鲁塞尔的北约总部告诉记者。

该国现在受到斯托尔滕贝格所说的北约“铁一般的安全保障”的保护，根据该保障，所有成员国都承诺在任何盟友遭受攻击时予以保卫。

但斯托尔滕贝格拒绝排除在那里举行更多军事演习的可能性，并表示北约不会允许俄罗斯的要求左右该组织的决定。

“我们一直在评估我们的姿态和存在感。我们增加了训练量，也提升了我们的存在感，在北欧地区也是如此，”他说。

与此同时，芬兰议会表示，其网站遭受了所谓的拒绝服务攻击，导致网站难以使用，许多页面无法加载，一些功能也无法使用。

一个名为 NoName057 (16) 的亲俄黑客组织声称对此事负责，称此次攻击是对芬兰加入北约的报复。

该说法暂无法核实。

据报道，该黑客组织受莫斯科指使，过去曾参与对美国及其盟友的一系列网络攻击。芬兰公共广播公司YLE称，该组织去年还攻击了芬兰议会网站。

芬兰的入盟仪式将在北约总部举行升旗仪式，而这一天恰逢北约成立74周年纪念日，即1949年4月4日签署的《华盛顿条约》74周年纪念日。此外，芬兰入盟也与北约各国外长会议同时举行。

芬兰总统、外交部长和国防部长将参加仪式。

周四，土耳其成为最后一个批准芬兰入盟议定书的北约成员国。在正式仪式开始前，土耳其将把这份正式确认该决定的文件递交给美国国务卿安东尼·布林肯。

芬兰外交部长向布林肯递交完成入盟程序的全部文件后，芬兰的北约成员国身份即正式生效。美国国务院负责保管有关成员国资格的文件。