Russia ‘taking measures’ in response to Nato expansion, says Kremlin

The Kremlin has said Russia is taking steps to “ensure our safety” and defended its decision to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, speaking to journalists, was responding to comments by the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who on Wednesday said a joint statement by Russia and China declaring countries should not deploy nuclear weapons outside their borders amounted to “empty promises”.

Peskov said:

It is Nato that is expanding towards Russia, not Russia that is taking its military infrastructure towards the borders of Nato.

Finland formally became Nato’s 31st member on Tuesday, doubling the length of the transatlantic defensive alliance’s land border with Russia. Sweden is also set to join the alliance.

Peskov said Russia would keep an eye on any Nato military deployments to Finland and respond accordingly. He said:

This movement adds to our concerns and worries for our safety ... and we are taking measures to ensure our security. And so it will be every time Nato approaches our borders, in order to rebalance the security architecture on the continent.

Russia’s Interfax news agency is reporting that the governor of Russia’s Bryansk region has claimed armed forces have prevented an attempt to break into the territory of the region by a group of saboteurs.

It cites Alexander Bogomaz posting on his Telegram channel:

Today, the border department of the FSB of Russia in the Bryansk region thwarted an attempt to penetrate the territory of the Russian Federation near the village of Sluchovsk, Pogarsky district, by a Ukrainian DRG in the amount of 20 people.

Subdivisions of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, together with subdivisions of the border troops, inflicted a fire defeat on the enemy.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Reuters reports Von der Leyen was responding to a question at a press conference on whether it was realistic that China might pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

She also said that discussed imbalances in trade between the EU and China, raised the EU’s deep concern about nuclear threats being located in Belarus, and said that China’s position on the UN security council gave it a responsibility to use its influence in a friendship with Russia built on decades.

AFP reports that Von der Leyen said in a Thursday meeting with Chinese premier Li Qiang that relations between the EU and China had grown “complex in recent years”.

“It is important that we discuss all aspects of this relationship together today,” she said, especially in the current “volatile geopolitical environment”.