Moscow is concerned about NATO military exercises in northern Norway, which increase the risk of “unintentional accidents” in the Arctic. The Russian ambassador told TASS Nikolay Korchunov, chairman of the Senior Officials Committee of the Arctic Council. Korchunov’s words come simultaneously with those of Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the Duma’s international affairs committee, who accused the US and GB of delivering weapons to Ukraine: “It is time for the US and British authorities to admit the their responsibility in escalating the global crisis and disrupting arms deliveries to Ukraine “, which may have” deplorable consequences for the whole world “.
But it is the Northern front where the frictions are increasing the most. On March 22, four American soldiers died in the crash of a US military plane in northern Norway during the NATO exercise. Cold Response. But even before the start of the conflict in Ukraine, the NATO strategy of building an axis in the Baltic Sea was considered a danger by Putin, so much so that he had deployed nuclear submarines.
The ever closer possibility of Sweden and Finland joining the Atlantic alliance (accelerated approach by the Russian invasion of Ukraine) has caused Moscow to raise the tension, so much so that last week it came to question the nuclear-free status of the region.
Today he complains about the exercises, a pretext to underline once again how much the consolidation of international balances is not at all well received. “The recent increase in NATO activity in the Arctic is a cause for concern,” said the Russian ambassador, citing a “large-scale military exercise of the alliance in northern Norway”. Such maneuvers “increase the risk of unintended accidents, which, in addition to safety risks, can also cause damage to the Arctic ecosystem”.