Putin announces re-creation of military district on the border with Finland

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced the re-creation of the Leningrad Military District on the border with Finland.

He said this in an interview with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin.

Putin added that Russia had no "disputes" with Finland before it joined NATO.

"Finland was dragged into NATO. There were no problems. Now there will be," Putin said.

He added that some military units would be concentrated in the newly created military district.

The Russian president did not specify what problems Finland would face but added that Russia is allegedly not interested in fighting with NATO countries either geopolitically or economically.

The Leningrad District existed from 1918 to 2010. In 2010, the Moscow and Leningrad Military Districts were merged into one Western Military District as part of the military reform.

In October 2023, Putin's order was published, stripping the Northern Fleet of its status as a military district and transferring four regions to the reconstituted Leningrad District.

These included the Republic of Komi, Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions, and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

In December 2022, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu stated that it was necessary to separate the Leningrad and Moscow districts due to "NATO's desire to build up military capabilities near Russia's borders, as well as to expand the North Atlantic Alliance by adding Finland and Sweden".

It will be recalled that after the opening of the checkpoints on December 14, more than 100 asylum seekers from Russia arrived at the border. Therefore, Finland decided to re-close the checkpoints for another month.

"The Russian authorities are continuing their hybrid operation against Finland," said Finnish Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen.

Earlier, Svidomi reported on Russia's hybrid tactics using migrants, the closure of the checkpoints and the reaction of the parties.