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Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Monday, May 16, 2022
Putin: NATO bids by Finland, Sweden no threat but may trigger response
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while addresseing a meeting of the Council of Legislators under the Russian Federal Assembly at the Tauride Palace, in St. Petersburg, Russia on April 27, 2022. (Alexander Demyanchuk, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin says that while Russia does not see Finland and Sweden’s decision to join NATO as a threat, deployment of military infrastructure there may trigger a response from Moscow.
The expansion of NATO to Sweden and Finland poses “no direct threat for us… but the expansion of military infrastructure to these territories will certainly provoke our response,” Putin says during a televised summit meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Moscow-led military alliance.
