Finnish Diplomat Tells Newsmax: Russia Has Plans Beyond Ukraine

Finland Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen reiterated her stance that Russia poses a long-term existential threat in Europe, telling Newsmax on Monday that Vladimir Putin is not likely to stop with Ukraine “if he saw an opportunity somewhere else.”

To help bolster Finland’s preparedness, Valtonen was in Washington, D.C., to sign the Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. That comes on the heels of joining NATO in April.

“I wouldn’t say that we are fearful, but it does seem that Russia indeed in its current posture does pose a long-term existential threat even to the Euro-Atlantic community,” Valtonen said in studio with “The Record With Greta Van Susteren.”

“Probably [Russia] wouldn’t stop with Ukraine if they simply saw the opportunity somewhere else, so we can’t be weak,” Valtonen told Van Susteren. “We have to be even stronger in the future and investing in to our defense and deterrence. And of course, hope that in the future, Russia would stop its aggression.”

Valtonen also addressed Putin’s propaganda that Finland was dragged by the West into NATO in the first place.

“This is exactly the narrative that Russia has been pulling for the past decades, right?” Valtonen said. “It’s that the West or NATO was threatening Russia. But on the very contrary, the autocrats like Putin doesn’t understand that NATO or the European Union, for that matter, they don’t expand by force.

“It’s the free people of democratic nations who choose to join. And Finland, as a NATO member, is obviously not a threat to Russia. We do this out of our own security concerns,” Valtonen said.

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