Yuly Kvitsinsky, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs, says such a move would damage bilateral relations.
He added Finnish NATO membership would lead to Russian responses in the military, political and economic fields.
Speaking in an interview given to YLE, Kvitsinsky pointed out that from the Russian standpoint, NATO is above all else an instrument of US foreign policy. For this reason, Finnish membership of the alliance would place the country in a standoff between superpowers, he said.
Russia’s reluctance to see NATO on its borders also extended to Finland, Kvitsinsky noted. A similar warning was issued last spring by Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian ambassador to NATO
