Finland’s people want to join Nato despite Russia’s warnings

If the Kremlin wanted to stop Nato expansion – that’s also not exactly going according to plan.

Today, Sweden followed Finland to confirm it would apply to join the military alliance, both risking the wrath of Moscow.

Sweden has pursued a policy of neutrality for 200 years – while Helsinki’s non-alignment is fuelled by fears over the security of its long 830-mile border with Russia.

But now that frontier could soon belong to Nato – just 250 miles from St Petersburg.

In Moscow today, President Putin claimed that Russia had no problem with either country joining Nato, but he warned that the “expansion of military infrastructure into this territory would certainly provoke our response… we shall see what threats are created for us”.