Tytti Tuppurainen said that “the people of Finland have already decided” and that the polls showed strong support for joining the alliance. “At this point I would say it’s a lot, but no decision has been made yet,” he said. He said Russia’s “violent” war in Ukraine was a “wake-up call for all of us”. Image: Border guard at the Finnish-Russian border in Imatra “Not just for us Finns, it has to do with all the security borders in Europe,” he said. It comes after the Prime Ministers of Finland and Sweden, Sana Marin and Magdalena Anderson, attended a joint press conference on Wednesday. Ms Marin said her country, which shares an 810-mile border with Russia, was ready to make a formal decision to join NATO “within weeks” after a debate in parliament. Russia threatens nuclear escalation over Finland, Sweden’s NATO bid Moscow responded by threatening to end the Baltic region without nuclear weapons. Threatening the nuclear escalation, Russia’s Vice-President of the Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said: “There can be no talk of any nuclear-free regime in the Baltic – the balance must be restored.” He also vowed to “seriously enhance the grouping of ground forces and air defense (and) the development of significant naval forces in the Gulf of Finland”. Read more: The sinking of Russia’s flagship in the Black Sea is a great shame for Vladimir Putin Picture: Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson (left) with Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Wednesday However, Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said that this was “nothing new” and that Russia already had nuclear weapons in the region – in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad in the Baltic Sea. Speaking to Sky News on Friday, Ms. Tuppurainen commented: “Whatever Russia says, we listen to it, but we make our own decisions based on our interests and our assessments of the overall situation. “Each country has the right to make its own security arrangements.” The process must be “fast” Asked how quickly Finland could join NATO, he added: “It depends on NATO member states, including the United Kingdom. “Ratification is needed in every Member State. The intermediate period between us leaving the application for membership and becoming a full member of NATO can become very bad. “So it is in the interest of all of us that the process be as fast as possible.” Subscribe to the Daily Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker Finland gained its independence from Russia in 1917 and fought two wars against it during World War II, when it lost some territory to Moscow. Asked about relations with Russia before the war in Ukraine, she said ordinary people would come and go as they wished, there were “cross-border relations” and “cultural exchanges”. But now he has said: “Things have changed radically. We can no longer trust Vladimir Putin’s Russia.” One of Putin’s main excuses for invading Ukraine was to prevent it from joining NATO.
