The deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, warned that if Sweden and Finland joined NATO, Russia will take it as a threat:

In a statement released Thursday, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, warned that if Sweden and Finland joined NATO, Russia’s military would “more than quadruple” its soldiers on the country’s western border.

He posted on Telegram that Russia will boost up its ground and air defence capabilities, as well as deploy “major naval troops” in the Gulf of Finland.

“It will no longer be feasible to talk about any non-nuclear status of the Baltic — the balance must be restored,” Medevedev continued if Sweden and Finland join NATO.

Medvedev, who was president of Russia for four years between 2008 and 2012 under President Vladimir Putin’s two-decade tenure, has taken a belligerent stance in recent months, despite not being a senior decision-maker.

According to a 2018 assessment by the Federation of American Scientists, Russia may have considerably updated a nuclear weapons storage bunker in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave sandwiched between Poland and the Baltic nations.