Putin Vows Military Response to 'Eliminate NATO Threat' If Sweden Joins U.S.-Led Alliance

Putin Vows Military Response to 'Eliminate NATO Threat' If Sweden Joins U.S.-Led Alliance

SABER-RATTLING: “If Sweden joins NATO this will affect our relations in a negative way because we will consider that the infrastructure of the military bloc now approaches us from the Swedish side,” Putin told state news agency Itar-Tass. “We will interpret that as an additional threat for Russia and we will think about how to eliminate this threat.” Russian officials have repeatedly treated NATO expansion near or at its borders as encroachment, rather than a desire by their smaller neighbors to deter Russian military incursion as sustained by Ukraine in 2014.