Why did a Russian ambassador issue a veiled nuclear threat against a NATO nation?

Finland has recently become a full NATO member state but this Russian neighbor could find itself in trouble with Moscow if Helsinki allows nuclear weapons to be on its territory according to comments the Russian ambassador to Finland made in early April 2024.

Moscow would retaliate against Finland if it allowed nuclear weapons to be placed on its territory according to a warning from Pavel Kuznetsov. But why is Russia so Kremlin worried and what did Kuznetsov threaten would be the consequences of such actions on Helsinki's part? 

Finland is one of the newest members to join NATO and was officially welcomed into the military alliance in April 2023. However, the country shares a 1,340km (832-mile) border with Russia and has remained neutral in the struggle between NATO and Russia for decades. 

The geopolitics of the area can be difficult at times but Finnish leadership has pursued a policy of non-alignment for seven decades according to Reuters. Finland’s position only ended after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

Newsweek reported that Finland was spurred on to join NATO by the increased threats Russia posed to itself and other countries following February 2022. Helsinki began the process of joining the trans-Atlantic defensive alliance in tandem with Sweden in May 2022. 

The move was one that angered Russian leadership and Vladimir Putin has warned that there would be consequences for their actions on several occasions since both Finland and Sweden announced their intentions to join NATO. 

For example, in June 2022, Putin said that Finland and Sweden could join the military alliance but said “if military contingents and military infrastructure were deployed there, we would be obliged to respond symmetrically” according to The Guardian. 

In March 2024, Putin revealed that Russia was planning to redeploy troops at its border with Finland in response to the country’s accession to NATO during an interview with the Russian journalist Dmitry Kiselyov according to United Press International. 

“We generally had ideal relations with Finland. Simply perfect. We did not have a single claim against each other, especially territorial, not to mention other areas,” Putin stated according to a translation of his remarks by Politico. 

“We didn’t even have troops,” Putin added, explaining to Kiselyov that Russia removed all of its troops from the Russian-Finnish border before adding that Moscow would now have troops stationed along the border with Finland.

Russia and Finland have also been fighting a prolonged border dispute over a migration issue that led to Helsinki closing its land border to Russia indefinitely to stop the flow of Syrian and Somali arrivals coming from Russia, Reuters reported. 

Tensions between the two nations are high but that didn’t stop the Russian ambassador to Finland Pavel Kuznetsov from threatening Helsinki with retaliation if nuclear weapons were allowed on Finnish soil nor from saying their relationship could not be repaired. 

"Sooner or later, the relationship between the two neighbors will be restored. That's not going to happen as quickly as we might want though," Kuznetsov explained to TASS, a state-owned Russian news agency, in early April. 

Kuznetsov said that Russia’s relationship with Finland depended less on Helsinki, which he noted had lost its independence because of its foreign policy decisions, and more on policies being pursued by Brussels and Washington against Russia. 

“There will be no return to the previous format of cooperation now that Finland has joined the aggressive military bloc,” Kuznetsov added, meaning he doesn’t see Russian relations with Finland returning to what they were before Helsinki joined NATO. 

Kuznetsov then went on to warn Finland against allowing any nuclear weapons on its soil, noting that “specific steps will be developed depending on real threats that these actions will pose to our security.”

"The Finns cannot but realize that such a major provocation will not be left without a Russian response. However, we expect that common sense would prevail,” the Russian ambassador continued. 

On May 5th, the Financial Times reported Finland was boosting its "war readiness" and had successfully tested its ability to run a war economy and began storing military equipment outside of its national borders.

“We need to be prepared for a long-term crisis," the Deputy Chief of Staff for Armaments and Logistics in the Finnish Defence Forces Lieutenant General Mikko Heiskanen explained to Financial Times.

"We have activated some of those, we have checked all of the agreements, we have tested procurement not just for ammunition but for other material. We are testing our strategic partners’ plans and readiness,” Lieutenant General Heiskanen added.