President of Russia gave a wide-ranging interview to RIA state news agency and Rossiya-1 state television, days before a March 15-17 election that is certain to give him another six years in power.
Vladimir Putin said that Finland and Sweden’s entry into NATO is “a meaningless step” and that Russia will deploy troops and systems of destruction to the Finnish border after Finland joins the alliance.
“This is an absolutely meaningless step (for Finland and Sweden) from the point of view of ensuring their own national interests. We didn’t have troops there (at the Finnish border), now they will be there. There were no systems of destruction there, now they will appear”, - said Putin.
As he added, if US troops appear in Ukraine, Russia will treat them as interventionists.